Tea at Trianon: How A Parasite Can Rewire Your Brain

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

How A Parasite Can Rewire Your Brain

From IFL Science!:

"Mind-controlling parasites" might sound like the baddies from a straight-to-TV horror movie, but that's a fairly accurate description of Toxoplasma gondii.

The single-celled organism is thought to be one of the most common parasites in the world, infecting up to 40 million people in the US, according to the CDC. While most infections are believed to be asymptomatic – and some research argues its effects are overstated – it has been linked to a wide variety of behavior changes in humans and other animals, including increased suicide rates, schizophrenia, and risk-taking behavior.

The parasite also infects most species of warm-blooded animals. In mice, for example, the parasitic infection is well known to cause a reduced fear of predators, such as cats. If the mouse is less scared, they’re more likely to get eaten and end up in the intestines of domestic cats, where the species tend to reproduce.

But how can a microscopic organism have such a seemingly powerful grip on the brain? (Read more.)