Real Zombies Among Us!

Xnewsman send in an absolutely horrific article from the New York Time that reports on the current issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology which deals with the naturally occurring zombies in nature!

 For the Doubting Thomas' among you, should be aware that zombies are FAR more frequent than you think! Viruses, fungi, protozoans, wasps, tapeworms and a vast number of other parasites have developed very specialized biology that hijacks another's brain and nervous system for their own needs.

Like a Costa Rican spider that ends it's life weaving a special web for the larva of a parasitic wasp, or a virus that infects certain caterpillars and drives them to climb high into the canopy unlike the caterpillar's regular behavior to stay low and out of sight of predators. Once it is at the highest point, it's body disintegrates spreading millions of copies of the virus.

Mammals and humans are not immune from parasitic infections and even chemical alterations of their brain chemistry....yes Zombifacation!

Check out the New York Times article here

Why Throgs, Dree & Buggers are so quick on the draw.

"The ion channels don't resemble any known ion channel on Earth"

We think of the standard insect shaped aliens characters' nearly unconquerable omniscience as due to group telepathic linkage at varying levels of organization. Usually it all leads back to the Queen in total tele-command of the forces in the field from back on the homeworld; she is usually simultaneously busily pumping out eggs while being tended obsequiously by the adoring homeboys...er ...homebugs. Regicide is just as effective for beating the insectoid forces from Away as it is for a ending a beehive.

But first you've got to get to the queen. The defenders are many, their coordination superb.

Understanding the nature of that coordination is critical to defeating the insectoid defenders. Now recent research suggests that these organisms - the earthly version at least - may communicate in somewhat the same way that large schools of herring do. Not group mind. Nor via some sort of biological ansible. Rather, by ....breaking wind. Sorta.

Newswise.com reports that Researcher Leslie Vosshall, head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior at Rockefeller University and Kazushige Touhara of Tokyo University's Division of Integrated Biosciences have joined forces to reveal that insects have adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically different from those of other organisms -- an unexpected and controversial finding that may dissolve a dominant ideology in the field and evolution as presently understood.

"The ion channels don't resemble any known ion channel on Earth, says Vosshall. "They are composed of two proteins that work in tandem with one another: an olfactory receptor and its coreceptor, Or83b. While the coreceptor is common to every ion channel, the olfactory receptor is unique. Together, they form the olfactory receptor complex."

"Now the curious result in the DEET paper showing that this insect repellent blocks insect olfactory receptors and unrelated ion channels makes sense," says Vosshall. "I am optimistic that we can come up with blockers specific for this very strange family of insect olfactory ion channels."

Image credit: Walter R. Tschinkel