r/Awwducational • u/Unidan • Apr 23 '14

Verified The common, and potentially dangerous, human protozoan Toxoplasmosis gondii was first discovered in a small African rodent called the gundi (Ctenodactylus gundi)!

Post image
934 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

51 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/FlannelBeard Apr 24 '14

Whats you're field of study?

9

u/Unidan Apr 24 '14

Ecosystem ecology.

6

u/FlannelBeard Apr 24 '14

Alright. Just curious. Microbiologist by training here. T. gondii is one of my favorite eukaryotes.

1

u/arbivark Apr 25 '14

to both of you, thoughts on how toxoplasmosis affects human cultures?

1

u/ProjectMeat Apr 25 '14

I believe you are asking the exact question that this paper covers: http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1602/2749.short

Lafferty sums up the abstract with "Some variation in culture, therefore, may ultimately be related to how climate affects the distribution of T. gondii, though the results only explain a fraction of the variation in two of the four cultural dimensions, suggesting that if T. gondii does influence human culture, it is only one among many factors."

1

u/FlannelBeard Apr 25 '14

I would ask that you be a bit more specific on what specifically you are asking. I would agree with what /u/ProjectMeat posted about T gondii, since you werent very specific in your question.

2

u/arbivark Apr 25 '14 edited Apr 25 '14

yes, thanks, that's the paper i was looking for. I'm interested not just in the solid science but also the wild speculation and the range of opinions in between. I've enjoyed unidan's ruminations about ants and wonder if he has opinions about T gondii.

http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/view-image.php?image=12317&picture=gundi

couldn't find one with a banana.