Are we under the influence?

Manipulative parasites are everywhere in the natural world: parasitic worms make crickets commit suicide by drowning themselves; other worms condition ants to remain motionless for hours so that they can be eaten by predators; mice that have become addicted to feline urine more or less throw themselves into cats' mouths; cuckoos make other species of birds raise their offspring for them; a fungus can take over the nervous system of an ant and enslave it… Not only are parasites everywhere, but nothing seems able to resist them.

The author, Clément Lagrue, is a parasitologist and one of the few researchers in the world who have devoted themselves to the study of these amazing creatures. Tiny as they are, they can exert extraordinary power over organisms that are far bigger and stronger – and, to all appearances, more complex – than they are, and turn them into zombies. For their own purposes, they can modify their hosts against their will, both in terms of morphology (e.g. their color) and physiology (e.g. making the host salivate more, use more oxygen or produce excess lipids).

And we humans are not spared! Parasites could in fact explain some behavioral disorders. Welcome to the fiendish world of manipulative parasites!