Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

nature.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 189 posts

Re: Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

#81

Post by frontman1988 »

meindnoch wrote: post #78

"Risky business: linking Toxoplasma gondii infection and entrepreneurship behaviours across individuals and countries" ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30051870/ ) >Among professionals attending entrepreneurship events, T. gondii-positive individuals were 1.8× more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees (n = 197). Finally, after synthesizing and combining country-level databases on T…

2 billion people already have the Toxoplasma gondii in their brains. If it were to affect humanity is some profound way, we would have already linked it to something more substantial than n=197 studies of correlating success in entrepreneurship to the virus.

Re: Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

#82

Post by Kiboneu »

It’s impressive to see T. Gondii evolve to influence their hosts to write positive PR.

Joking aside, it makes sense to me that higher risk behavior on the host’s part would increase a parasite’s spread, since some of the energy that drives risk also increases the rate of physical interaction with the world; like a free roaming particle with a lot of momentum on a substrate. It is good to see more research looking into this since this seems to be low hanging fruit compared to possible compound effects of t. gondii influence on society.

Re: Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

#83

Post by acuozzo »

yesbut wrote: post #7
machina_ex_deus wrote: post #3

Imagine how dystopian that would sound in humans, like some science fiction horror. "All the leaders are secretly infected by parasites". Sounds like interesting sci fi movie premise.

There is the idea that anyone that wants to be a leader probably shouldn't be a leader. These are the types of people who crave being in positions of authority over others. They'll step on anyone they need to in order to get the the top. They might be the leader, but they usually aren't necessarily the types of people that are looking out for the best interests of the people they lead.

> There is the idea that anyone that wants to be a leader probably shouldn't be a leader. These are the types of people who crave being in positions of authority over others.

Which is why it's helpful to have as many (what I refer to as…) "power traps" in a society as possible: coaching, teaching, leading an HOA, leading a PTA, etc.

I have nothing against these endeavors, you must understand, but my view is that a person spending time acting as a judge for a dog show is less likely to pursue becoming an actual judge.

Re: Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

#84

Post by goodpoint »

jonplackett wrote: post #73
jokoon wrote: post #71

I'm still not very convinced of the scientific definition of "pack leader". Behavior science is sensitive to interpretation, in my view. It's a human bias to see human concepts in other species.

What do you mean by that? I thought it was a pretty accepted/normal thing for wolves to have a pack leader?

https://phys.org/news/2021-04-wolf-dont-alpha-males-females....

https://wolf.org/headlines/44265/

Re: Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

#86

Post by enkid »

frontman1988 wrote: post #81
meindnoch wrote: post #78

"Risky business: linking Toxoplasma gondii infection and entrepreneurship behaviours across individuals and countries" ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30051870/ ) >Among professionals attending entrepreneurship events, T. gondii-positive individuals were 1.8× more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees (n = 197). Finally, after synthesizing and combining country-level databases on T…

2 billion people already have the Toxoplasma gondii in their brains. If it were to affect humanity is some profound way, we would have already linked it to something more substantial than n=197 studies of correlating success in entrepreneurship to the virus.

That's not how science works.

Re: Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

#87

Post by thaumasiotes »

pydry wrote: post #58
nonrandomstring wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't read the paper either, but I must say the operation of parasites as elements in complex biological super-systems is absolutely fascinating. Ants that march to the top of trees under the influence of fungus spores trying to be eaten by birds. Fish that commit suicide by swimming toward predators as part of a parasitic lifecycle.... evolution is truly miraculous. Another apocryphal story is cats carrying Toxo…

Things also get interesting if you look at economic and social systems in this context.

No post body was provided.

Re: Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

#88

Post by thaumasiotes »

californiadreem wrote: post #38
machina_ex_deus wrote: post #3

Imagine how dystopian that would sound in humans, like some science fiction horror. "All the leaders are secretly infected by parasites". Sounds like interesting sci fi movie premise.

"There's a secret cabal of beings that are making my life personally miserable" is already a common enough position that cyclically occurs in human history every hundred years or so that I don't think it's a fiction. I don't think it's an untenable premise to suspect that toxoplasmosis pandemics are cyclically-occuring in humans already and are responsible for revolutionary periods and/or imperialism. What people mig…

> consider that the idea of not cleaning your hands directly led to disease was considered literal insanity (see the tragic history of Ignaz Semmelweis) prior to germ theory

I was under the impression that it wasn't so much that people considered the idea insane, as that they hated Semmelweis and were therefore strenuously opposed to anything associated with him.

Re: Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

#89

Post by jjallen »

frontman1988 wrote: post #81
meindnoch wrote: post #78

"Risky business: linking Toxoplasma gondii infection and entrepreneurship behaviours across individuals and countries" ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30051870/ ) >Among professionals attending entrepreneurship events, T. gondii-positive individuals were 1.8× more likely to have started their own business compared with other attendees (n = 197). Finally, after synthesizing and combining country-level databases on T…

2 billion people already have the Toxoplasma gondii in their brains. If it were to affect humanity is some profound way, we would have already linked it to something more substantial than n=197 studies of correlating success in entrepreneurship to the virus.

This may very well be true. I wish you had posted more of a direct criticism of the study in question other than its small sample size.

It may have had a similar control group and could be relevant. It could be that individuals with more of the parasite are more likely to become entrepreneurs still.

Re: Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders

#90

Post by sva_ »

Kognito wrote: post #72

“Semi-dormant tissue cysts form in the brain, eyes and heart muscle, persisting the infection for life” “Can also infect humans” Well that doesn’t give me nightmares at all.

> In the United States it is estimated that 11% of the population 6 years and older have been infected with Toxoplasma. In various places throughout the world, it has been shown that more than 60% of some populations have been infected with Toxoplasma.

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/toxoplasmosis/epi.html

Post reply on HN