It is my life ! aahh..hold on...

It is my life !  aahh..hold on...

every time, when Bon Jovi starts talking with my soul, i go crazy and super charged..  But is it really my life ? Or am i being used for someone else benefit  ? (i am not talking about mangers @ your office.)

you might have heard of toxoplasmosis.  these little things, need cat as well as mice to complete their life cycle.  to enter from mice to cat, they alter mice's brain and it wipe off one of its natural instincts  - ie: run away when they see/smell a cat.  as a result, they become easy lunch/dinner for the cat, and the parasite reaches easily from mice to cat !
the above one is popular article, and it was making rounds in Google+ for some time (i think it was started by Dr.Bright)  But there are more such things !

a female Sacculina carcini larva, finds a male crab in the water and starts its happy life !  As soon as she enters inside that crab, she starts growing.  Spreads root like tendrils all over the crab.  Then comes the male.  And honeymoon starts, and they continuously  reproduce. 

during this time crab goes under major changes.  He starts acting like she !  He will start widening and flattening the abdomen, to  looking like a female crab! And he starts producing female hormones too !  Hold on...some more to the list... he will start doing the dance, that female crab does during the mating time !  (I am sure, there are some lady crabs, who wants her man to dance to her tunes.  But may not be this way)  And what more ?  This male crab starts taking care of barnacle's eggs, as his own eggs !

(Pic by Lycaon, edited by Marluxia.Kyoshu, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sacculina_carcini.jpg.  

in the above pic, you can see, parasitical barnacle (marked inside the circle) That tiny thing is taking this crab for a ride making it to dance to its tunes  ! Hell !

 
now, want to meet some Zombies ?  Possible.  But in the form of ants.  They are known as Zombi Ants.  Some carpenter ants builds their homes very high on the trees.  But when they are infected with Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, that brings them down from sky to earth.  It makes the ant to move in to an area, where the temperature and humidity level are best for the fungal growth.  These little things make our ants to settle down at lower heights.  They start consuming the tissues of the ant, everything , except muscles, which  controls the mandibles.  The ant is made to use its  mandibles, and fix themselves to a major vein, under a leaf, and the ant dies.  The fungal spores fall to the ground to infect more ants.

Pic by Nirajdude, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis.png

If you are a bird and you see a yummy huge snail, under some  light - say thanks to Leucochloridium paradoxum.  (Don't ask me how to read that name.  It is a copy paste.)  These (the copy pasted name) spends most of its life in bird's body.  This flat worm even breeds inside the bird and only the eggs are passed out of bird's body, along with its poo.  And the poor snail eats it.  (i feel real pity for this...all it gets to eat is some sh** and its life is hijacked !)  They reproduce so quickly and form long tubes of swollen "broodsacs."   And as it grows, it attacks the left side of the snail  and it starts glowing in bright yellow and green colors !  Normally snails avoid light.  But when they are infected,  it  makes them  less sensitive to the lights.  As a result, these poor things  move in to the light, in shining colors, Now, can you blame, if the bird call himself/herself lucky seeing the meal ?

(Pic by Hahmann, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Succinea_mit_Leucocholoridium.jpg )

You can see a neatly done diagram in this link :
http://amamiantiaobong.wordpress.com/category/design/page/2/

Well, let me conclude this with a happy note.  most of these hijackers, believe in use the throw policy !  They use the victim and cause nothing but death.  But there are some angles who believe  in  - you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours

 
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce... (hold on.....let me copy..) Heterorhabditis bacteriophora. (Gosh..how do you come up with such names ?  Do you think this is called creativity  ? )

Well, this copy paste helps larvas.  we can call them  as the best friends of larva !  what they do is, they change the color of larva, from white to kind red.  Now, this new color is like a traffic red signal for the predators.  it is the color of warning for them.  so, they stay away from these colored dudes.  Care to know more ?  Go to http://www.wormbook.org/chapters/www_genomesHbacteriophora/genomesHbacteriophora.html

So, are we too infected by similar things ?  Our behaviors, thinking...are they being hijacked ?  May be.  I don't know.  Now to business, can we make chemicals, which will change our thinking/natural instincts ?  alter our brains....and make us better/worse ?