Science Discovers a New Sense

It now appears that the lowly worm, Caenorhabditis elegans, has evolved a new sensory perception heretofore unknown to science. In the current issue of PLoS Biology, Stacey L. Edwards, Kenneth G. Miller, and others have shown that these nematodes can detect ultraviolet light using receptors completely unlike any other light receptive molecule in visual systems. In fact, this receptor (cleverly called LITE-1) is more similar to taste receptors in worms and in flies than pigment molecules in other visual systems. It remains unclear how the ultraviolet signal is transduced through the worms receptor to activate the worms’ nerves, however they have eliminated the possibility that it is only heat that they the worms sense. Regardless, it seems that evolution has again demonstrated the cooption of an existing system (in this case – taste), to create an entirely new system (UV sensing).

This serves as yet another example of a peephole into reality that should make us envious of our animal brethren. So let us add “tasting” light to the list, which now contains pit viper infrared, electroception of fishes, magnetoception of birds, and echolocation of bats and cetaceans.

Check out an excellent summary of the article here, or access the primary research article here.

Nematodes

This is a story for you to read while eating lunch.

So as you all know I went fishing this weekend.

What you don't know is that in the process of catching fish I saw one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen.

I was catching small bream (sunfish) to use as bait to catch catfish when I noticed that the first bream I caught had eyes bulging way out of its head. I chalked it up to just being a sick fish. So I then caught ten more only to find that all of them had the same thing. And around their bulging eyes I could see what looked like inflamed blood vessels. The weird thing was that the "vessels" were moving.

I think "what the hell is going on here?" and proceed to take one of the fish and cleanly pop out its eyeball (after removing the head first of course). Underneath the eyeball I found the most horrific thing I've ever seen. Each fish had within its eye cavity (behind the eye - not in it) hundreds of small red roundworms. The eye socket was FULL of them all squirming around.

Needless to say I didn't eat any of the fish. So when I got home I popped on the web, found the organization in charge of the pond and sent them a little letter. I just got off the phone a few minutes ago with the guy in charge. It turns out they know about the parasites. They are caused by the hundreds of geese shitting in the pond too much. Fortunately they are completely and totally harmless.

The guy actually called to thank me for sending the email to a higher up person in the bureaucracy. He said that I scared the shit out of all the administrators with the thought of their pond infecting hundreds of people with red worms in their eyes. The guy in charge has been trying to get something done about the infestation for two summers now and my email sparked the administration to pay attention to him. Pretty funny if you ask me.

Apparently Charlotte, NC had a similar problem, so they used a huge net to catch all the geese and haul them to Louisiana and released them. Unfortunately Carrboro can't afford to do that. Plus all the hippie activists in Carrboro won't let them get rid of any of the geese. But they are working on other options to fix the problem such as an oxygenating water fountain that will reduce the bacterial load (which the wormies feed on).

That's my story for the day.

Alfonso and the Sandwich-Making Robin

I just had an immensely weird and mildly amusing experience, and I thought I'd share it.

I was just outside the lab sitting under this short tree. I was kneeling down leaning against the tree. There was a chipmunk (Alfonzo – I’ve seen him about once a day for two years) digging for nuts and whatnot about 15 feet away. All of a sudden a robin flew down about five feet away, and while cautiously watching me proceeded to catch an earthworm from the mulch around the tree. There was a large crust of bread about ten feet away that had been there all morning (between the bird and the chipmunk) and the Robin flew straight to it and, I shit you not, he began making an earthworm and bread-crust sandwich. Actually, it was more like a salad. But he would break up the bread, then tear the worm, then pick up a piece of the worm with a piece of the bread and eat it. I was just sitting their mouth agape at this freaking bird reinventing the sandwich.
It was disturbing I tell you.

But there is more.

About five seconds later Alfonzo the chipmunk stands on his hind legs (as they are wont to do) and looks directly at me. He then runs to about 2 feet away from me, stops and looks at me again. I tried to be relatively still to see how close he would come (I assumed he didn't realize I was there). After staring at me a few seconds he walks up to my foot (keep in mind I am kneeling close to the ground) and he puts his front paws on my shoe, flattens his body to the ground, looks up at me, and begins waving his tail in this methodic left-right fashion while staring right at my face. He does this for about five seconds before slowly sauntering off to look for more nuts. I swear to god he was trying to tell me something (probably something like "hey you - I know you", or "why the hell are you always hangin’ round my crib?" or maybe he was saying "damn you're one large fine-ass specimen of a man - for a chipmunk"). He could have been saying that - really - maybe he's retarded and doesn't know the difference.

I'm still not sure if all this really happened or I'm just going insane. Or maybe God is just screwing with me. It would be a pretty funny joke. I'd be doin' all sorts of crazy shit like that if I were God.

Imagine walking around a corner to find three raccoons playing jump rope.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed my tale.