Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Hijacking Your Fear

Have no fear, the toxoplasma gondii parasite is here. Just like a decent piece of malware exploiting a zero day vulnerability in an anti virus software, shutting it down or making sure it cannot obtain the latest signatures while totally ignoring the host's firewall, this parasite controls the fate of rats and mice in a targeted nature :

"by hijacking the part of the brain that makes the rodents naturally fear cats, a new study show. The exquisite precision leaves intact all other neurological mechanisms for learning to avoid danger, so the rodents learn to survive all hazards except being eaten by cats – the only form of death beneficial to the parasite."

Very interesting example of targeted attacks on a rat's brain courtesy of mother Nature's ghost-hacking capabilities. Just a whisper in my ghost - hope the parasite doesn't become cats-compatible and have them fear the mice.

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