141–150 of 189 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can see the headlines now "you won't believe this one weird trick for bigger gains and better performance in bed".
What is the legal framework for a product that infects people with "beneficial" parasites ?
Also; Grey wolves infected with this parasite are more likely to become pack leaders : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33738581
It's the same news, reported in two different places.
Toxoplasma gondii : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii
Risk factors for human infection : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxoplasma_gondii#Immune_respo...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Age, socio-economic status, and other confounding factors. Not to mention, according to him, 40% is "barely".
He probably didn't have the stat off the top of his head, so it was exaggerated based on assumptions. But the underlying intuition had a kernel of truth and applies to any political party, or any institution, really. For example, if an organization dedicated to the poor mainly draws support from poor people, they have a kind of incentive to subtly maintain poverty. This theory that institutions kind of have a tendenc…
Arguably by the same reasoning, republicans benefit from legal abortion and their finally getting Roe v Wade reversed was terrible for their electoral performance.
Pussy changes everything?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think they were suggesting that causality could run the other way.
That wild cats infected humans so that humans would develope agriculture that would attract rodents for the cats to eat? That hypothesis doesn't seem very plausible...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ha! It's good research but there is a major caveat I didn't see it in this press release. Before they answer questions like yours they need to have tracked when infection occured. Simple conundrum are wolves who are infected with t. Gondii more likely to leave their pack? Or are wolves that leave their pack more likely to get infected? Similarly for pack leaders. It might seem obtuse to ask for this but it is importa…
Probably a good idea to critique the paper, not the press release. I haven't read it but for all you know they could have discussed this at length.
>Given the correlational nature of the study, observed patterns may not be causal; for example, higher risk-takers could be more likely to be both entrepreneurial and exposed to T. gondii [...], thereby driving the correlation.
Remember that while it might sound amazing that a parasite could steer higher cognitive functions towards something as abstract as being more entrepreneurial, there is no practicable mechanism suggested so far and until someone figures out if it is even possible, all these studies are to be handled with care.
How does it know what gene to promote? Its hard to beleive that such "primitive" organizm promotes exploration and risky behavior in number of different animals.
The research results are an interesting find and good work. They indicate a clear need for more research. They aren't conclusive as is, at least with the limited info I found (I haven't found a papers archive from The Wolf Society 2022 conference, so I had to go by press articles). Sample size of 229 seems small, considering the diversity among wolf packs. For example, were these wolves from one state vs multiple sta…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably a good idea to critique the paper, not the press release. I haven't read it but for all you know they could have discussed this at length.
They discuss it briefly and it turns out the above commenter is 100% correct in his assessment. Relevant quote from the paper: >Given the correlational nature of the study, observed patterns may not be causal; for example, higher risk-takers could be more likely to be both entrepreneurial and exposed to T. gondii [...], thereby driving the correlation. Remember that while it might sound amazing that a parasite could…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the medical system going to do about a parasite that often doesn't cause any symptoms that can pinpoint the particular pathogen? Most healthy people clear the infection without ever knowing anything happened. We don't have any way to undo whatever the parasite did while it was active. It's probably possible to create a vaccine, but the full impact in humans is still being explored and a vaccine for a pathogen…
I definitely don't have a clear answer here either. It's just a interesting thing to think about. It's very common and can change you or your loved ones personality. However, reviving it of course would also changed your personality. I've noticed recently that I've gotten much more risk-averse than I used to be and think it might be bad. Maybe I should get toxoplasmosis on purpose? Really creates a lot of questions a…