The Parasites are Here

The other day I was driving back from having taught my class at WCC and listening to wbur.org You should have seen my face: during that 1/2 hour my face went through a range of facial expressions and sounds expressing abhorrence, panic, fatalism and pure joy... all in that order :)

What was I listening to you ask?

Radiolab. Their performance of the report was very entertaining while the content was making me jitterry. The topic was Parasites...

This particular subject was quite fascinating. The subject was Toxoplasm gondii which is a common protozoan parasite. It causes a disease called toxoplasmosis. "Although not normally harmful to humans, in immunocompromised hosts and in new born babies toxoplasmosis is harmful," according to House Ear Institute. Below is a micrograph colorized with NIH Image.

Enjoy the story!