Anthropology News, Science News

About 40 per cent of the world’s population is infected with Toxoplasma gondii, including about eight million Australians.
Human infection generally occurs when people eat raw or undercooked
meat that has cysts containing the parasite, or accidentally ingest
some of the parasite’s eggs excreted by an infected cat.
The parasite is known to be dangerous to pregnant women as it can cause
disability or abortion of the unborn child, and can also kill people
whose immune systems are weakened.
Until recently it was thought to be an insignificant disease in healthy
people, Sydney University of Technology infectious disease researcher
Nicky Boulter said, but new research has revealed its mind-altering
properties.
"Interestingly, the effect of infection is different between men and women,” Dr Boulter writes in the latest issue of Australasian Science magazine.
"Infected men have lower IQs, achieve a lower level of education and
have shorter attention spans. They are also more likely to break rules
and take risks, be more independent, more anti-social, suspicious,
jealous and morose, and are deemed less attractive to women.
"On the other hand, infected women tend to be more outgoing, friendly,
more promiscuous, and are considered more attractive to men compared
with non-infected controls.
"In short, it can make men behave like alley cats and women behave like sex kittens”.
Dr Boulter said the recent Czech Republic research was not conclusive,
but was backed up by animal studies that found infection also changes
the behaviour of mice.
The mice were more likely to take risks that increased their chance of
being eaten by cats, which would allow the parasite to continue its
life cycle.
Rodents treated with drugs that killed the parasites reversed their behaviour, Dr Boulter said.
Another study showed people who were infected but not showing symptoms
were 2.7 times more likely than uninfected people to be involved in a
car accident as a driver or pedestrian, while other research has linked
the parasite to higher incidences of schizophrenia.
"The increasing body of evidence connecting Toxoplasma infection with
changes in personality and mental state, combined with the extremely
high incidence of human infection in both developing and developed
countries, warrants increased government funding and research, in
particular to find safe and effective treatments or vaccines,” Dr
Boulter said.

Sourced from mysterytopia

IRKUTSK, July 29 (RIA Novosti) – A team of Russian scientists
descended to the bottom of Siberia’s Lake Baikal in two mini-submarines
on Tuesday, setting a new world record for a freshwater dive. (Photo tour with RIA Novosti: Lake Baikal)

News channel Vesti-24 said the submersibles, Mir-1 and Mir-2, reached a
depth of 1,680 meters (5,500 feet) in the world’s deepest lake, which
holds 20% of the planet’s fresh water.

The ongoing expedition in what locals call the ‘Sacred Sea’ was
organized by Artur Chilingarov, a Russian lawmaker who led a symbolic
dive to the North Pole seabed last August, during which a Russian flag
was planted on the seabed.

Chilingarov earlier said the Mir dives were "a logical continuation of
lake exploration that was begun 30 years ago with the Pisces
apparatus."

Soviet scientists in a Pisces submersible reached a depth of 1,410
meters (4,600 feet) in 1977, and examined the lake’s bed with
searchlights. The lake has since been the focus of numerous Soviet,
Russian and international research expeditions.

Chilingarov said "major technical problems" have to be overcome in deep
dives into the lake, due to "difficult weather conditions which dictate
their own special conditions in fresh water."

Baikal, whose age scientists estimate at 25 million years, is a UNESCO
World Heritage site with hundreds of species of unique fauna and flora.

Crew member Natalia Komarova, the first woman to take part in a Mir
mini-sub dive, told reporters that the results of the expedition would
have an important impact on environmental legislation. (VIDEO)

"We need to understand how to protect Baikal and use it without harming its unique ecosystem," she said.

She said new safeguards would be needed to protect the lake, given the
planned intensive economic and industrial development of East Siberia
over the coming years. The lake has been the focus of major
environmental scares in recent years, with a last-minute change to an
oil pipeline route that was set to pass near Baikal’s shores, and
environmental regulators’ claims against a pulp mill accused of pumping
large volumes of toxic waste into the lake.

The research team is based on the lake’s Olkhon Island, where the
mini-subs were delivered earlier in the day on barges. The crew
includes the head of the local administration and the president of
investment company Metropol, which has contributed $6 million to the
expedition.

The expedition is set to run for two years, during which the scientists
will conduct around 160 dives in various areas of the lake. Research
will include tectonic information-gathering, and exploration for
archeological artifacts. Expedition leaders have denied media reports
that they will also be searching for oil and gas.

With thanks to – em.rian.ru

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