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from the editors-are-superorganisms dept.
Besides your genes from parents, you are a mosaic of viruses, bacteria – and potentially, other humans. Indeed, if you are a twin, you are particularly likely to be carrying bits of your sibling within your body and brain. Stranger still, they may be influencing how you act.
"Humans are not unitary individuals but superorganisms," says Peter Kramer at the University of Padua. "A very large number of different human and non-human individuals are all incessantly struggling inside us for control." Together with Paola Bressan, he recently wrote a paper in the journal Perspectives in Psychological Science, calling for psychologists and psychiatrists to appreciate the ways this may influence our behaviour.
That may sound alarming, but it has long been known that our bodies are really a mishmash of many different organisms. Microbes in your gut can produce neurotransmitters that alter your mood; some scientists have even proposed that the microbes may sway your appetite, so that you crave their favourite food. An infection of a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii, meanwhile, might just lead you to your death. In nature, the microbe warps rats' brains so that they are attracted to cats, which will then offer a cosy home for it to reproduce. But humans can be infected and subjected to the same kind of mind control too: the microbe seems to make someone risky, and increases the chance they will suffer from schizophrenia or suicidal depression. Currently, around a third of British meat carries this parasite, for instance – despite the fact an infection could contribute to these mental illnesses. "We should stop this," says Kramer.
The microbes made me do it.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @08:34PM
ArchLinux users are out of control!! [dailymail.co.uk]
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by dyingtolive on Wednesday November 18 2015, @08:39PM
What the actual fuck, humanity?
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 18 2015, @08:40PM
I agree. ArchLinux users are sick fucks. [orlandosentinel.com]
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday November 18 2015, @11:26PM
...judging from the looks of that guy, I doubt he even owns a computer. He probably thinks Linux is some kind of motor oil.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 19 2015, @12:40AM
Ummm... No shit? Good job figuring that out, Aspergers man.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday November 19 2015, @09:03AM
Neither male nor aspie. Care to try again, genius?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...