parasite

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Hundreds Sick From Cilantro Grown in Feces-Strewn Fields

Cyclospora cayetanensis is a single-celled parasite that causes the infection

(Newser) - The US is banning some Mexican cilantro thanks to the appalling conditions health officials recently found at multiple cilantro fields two hours southeast of Mexico City. Human feces and toilet paper have been found in the growing fields in Puebla, and the general lack of sanitation for workers has been...

Did Dinosaurs Hallucinate After Chewing Grass?
Did Dinosaurs Hallucinate After Chewing Grass?
NEW STUDY
Feb 11, 2015 9:15 AM CST

Did Dinosaurs Hallucinate After Chewing Grass?

Oldest grass specimen ever found was topped with fungus linked to LSD

(Newser) - If you're glad you weren't on the planet in the days when Stegosaurus was whipping its spiked tail around in agitation, imagine the dino stumbling around with its eyes ablaze on the prehistoric equivalent of an acid trip, courtesy of newly discovered fungus-tipped grass. A perfectly preserved, 100-million-year-old...

Parasite Makes Mice Fearless of Cats

In an adaptation that probably doesn't end well for the rodents

(Newser) - Good news for cats: Mice are no longer afraid of them—at least mice that have been infected with a parasite common in mammals. Not only does Toxoplasma gondii leave mice less afraid and thus more likely to venture into striking distance, the effects last after the parasite has cleared,...

Richard III Had Bad Case of Roundworms

Researchers find evidence of intestinal parasite infection

(Newser) - Since digging up the skeleton of Richard III , scientists have been able to determine what he looked like , how he was buried ... and, most recently, what was going on in his bowels. It seems the king had a roundworm infection when he died, the Independent reports. Researchers compared a soil...

Girl, 12, Battles Brain-Eating Amoeba After Lake Swim

Kali Hardig in critical condition in Arkansas

(Newser) - Kali Hardig, 12, went swimming in a Little Rock, Ark., lake earlier this month—and, in a nightmare scenario, she's now battling a brain-eating parasite . Naegleria fowleri is a microscopic amoeba that gets to the brain through the nose, typically infecting people who go swimming in freshwater, CNN reports....

Bloodsucker Named After ... Bob Marley

10 years after its discovery, new parasite gets a famous name

(Newser) - More than 30 years after his death, Bob Marley has a new, strange accomplishment. Researchers at Arkansas State University have named a parasitic crustacean that makes its home in warm Caribbean waters after the late reggae star, reports LiveScience . It doesn't seem like Gnathia marleyi shares Marley's "...

Brain-Eating Amoeba Kills Second Child

Rare parasite found in stagnant freshwater

(Newser) - The waterborne parasite known as the "brain-eating amoeba" is as bad as it sounds and it has caused the deaths of at least two young people this month. The rare but extremely deadly parasite that causes amoebic meningoencephalitis, an infection that attacks the brain and spine, can be found...

Insect Threatens Hawaii's Top-Shelf Kona Coffee

Coffee berry borer will make beans pricier

(Newser) - Coffee from Hawaii's Kona coast is sought the world over—and can command a price of more than $50 a pound. But the Kona harvest is facing a grave danger: infestation from a the coffee berry borer, a relentless pest that can eradicate a crop, NPR reports. The borer eats...

Sore Throat May Have Axed T Rex

Trichomonosis still affects modern birds and makes eating almost impossible

(Newser) - Tyrannosaurus rex could have been laid low not by a planetwide dinosaur holocaust or vicious infighting, but by a parasite that still affects modern birds. Researchers have taken a close look at lesions on T. rex fossils once presumed to be battle scars and concluded that they are the work...

Malaria Jumped From Chimps to Humans

(Newser) - The parasite that causes malaria almost certainly jumped from chimpanzees to humans much like the AIDS virus did, National Geographic reports. Scientists initially believed that the malaria parasite that kills over a million people annually was older than humanity. But new research has found that it is a mutant version...

'Star Wars' Scientists Take Aim at Mosquitoes

Anti-malaria Weapons of Mosquito Destruction can zap bugs 100ft away with lasers

(Newser) - Rocket scientists who worked on ways to beat Soviet missiles a generation ago are now using their lasers to zap mosquitoes, the Wall Street Journal reports. Researchers looking for ways to combat malaria have rejigged "Star Wars" technology to create a contraption that can pick off individual mosquitoes from...

Alaskan Salmon Sick of Climate Change

Scientists blame global warming for 'white spot disease'

(Newser) - Alaskan king salmon are getting sick, and experts have named a culprit: global warming. Marine ecologists say that a rise in "white spot disease" is tied to a 3-decade trend of higher temperatures in the Yukon River, the Los Angeles Times reports. With cold-temperature barriers melting, parasites and bacteria...

Docs Close to Stamping Out Guinea Worm

Worldwide campaign may eradicate the second disease ever

(Newser) - In a campaign led by Jimmy Carter, world public health authorities have decreased the incidence of guinea worm disease (formally known as dracunculiasis) from 3.5 million cases in 1986 to just over 25,000 in 2006. Guinea worm is a parasite transmitted through water to humans that causes excruciating...

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