A Social Bookmarking Gem

Jörg Reiher (newjoerg) is a user on Diigo with a focus on social bookmarking pages related to science and medicine with a whopping 2023 public bookmarks. Science and medicine is vaguely related to parasites in a more clinical reason. Unfortunately, most searches about parasites will yield medical/clinical results and tend to lack the cultural and social perspective about them (for example, social parasitism which doesn't involve the clinical parasite at all). As such, Reiher only has tags on science, medicine, parasites, biology, genetics, the brain, psychology, and animals. Most of my blog stays within the realm of the biological/medical parasite so we have quite a bit in common although Reiher remains much more general in his or her interests.

Now, realistically speaking, 2023 bookmarks is a bit of a wide net to cover. So I'm going to focus on their "parasite" tag with a meager 23 bookmarks. Not to worry though! Even in this little basket, there are quite a few gems inside.

Let's start with a bit of an odd one. "Why is there sex? To fight the parasite army" is a peculiar article discussing experiments based on Caenorhabditis elegans, a hermaphroditic worm that can either reproduce asexually (ie. by itself) or sexually. Scientists noted that when the worms were infected with a bacterial parasite, the worms were more likely to reproduce sexually. This is because sexual reproduction increases genetic diversity (in order for natural selection to occur) and survivability. It's definitely an interesting piece when trying to figure out how to fight back against a parasite.

"Parasitic worms paint warning colours on their hosts using glowing bacteria" is another fascinating piece which involves describing the behavior of the Heterorhabditis group of worms when they infect caterpillars. The nematode worms have a symbiotic relationship with a type of glowing bacteria, Photorhabdus luminescens (the answer is in the name), which the worms release upon entrance in the host. The bacteria kill the caterpillar and "paint it" red, which is distasteful to birds which normally eat the caterpillars. This is able to help the nematodes and bacteria remain safe in the carcass, where both can eat and remain until it's time to infect another caterpillar.

Both articles describe interesting ways in which both host and parasite act in order to increase survivability and reproduce. While I've taken it upon myself so far to focus on the relationships between parasites and humans (a topic I find underwritten about, especially in the United States), it's important to remember there are many parasites out there that are made for animals. In some cases, parasites infect or are transferred into humans by mistake and it's unquestionably important to study how parasites act and influence behaviors of their hosts.

Reiher has been a member of Diigo since December 2010 and was last active in bookmarking publicly yesterday with occasional additions from less than a week to almost three. He or she has recently tagged some personal interests of mine including an article on diagnosis of a fatal brain disease and an article on ebola.

If you have an interests in anything regarding science or medicine, chances are Reiher has something for you.