Sorry to be doing so much random quoting today, but I keep running into interesting things that I'm not really qualified to comment on:
In "Bugs in the Brain," he describes a parasite that infects thebrains of rats without any effect on their behavior except that theylose their instinctual aversion to the smell of cats and, instead, aredrawn to it. Needless to say, such absurdly obliging prey is quicklygobbled up: bad for the rat but great for the parasite, since it canonly reproduce inside a cat host. The next generation hitches a rideout on the cat's feces, which are ingested by rats to start the cycleover again.
"This is flabbergasting," Sapolsky writes. "This islike someone getting infected with a brain parasite that has no effectwhatsoever on the person's thoughts, emotions, S.A.T. scores ortelevision preferences, but, to complete its life cycle, generates anirresistible urge to go to the zoo, scale a fence, and French-kiss" themeanest-looking polar bear.
Nature is insane.
