Science Fiction Freakiness - Hold the Fiction
>> Tuesday, April 21, 2009
OK, every once in a while I write a post basically telling you something really cool I've seen on another blog. Well, this is another one. Why?
Well, it's cool. A blog I've been enjoying called "Observations of a Nerd" - which is kind of like Rocket Science in principle except all about biology and socialogy and a few other types of science that can make those of us in the physical sciences pretty uneasy (unless you're as opinionated as I am) - has a weekly feature on "This Week's Sci-Fi Worthy Parasite." Now, some of you know I write science fiction. She ain't lying when she says these are science fiction-worthy and I'm starting to take notes. Some, like this week's, aren't immediately threatening but the notion, where it could go from there, is definitely disturbing. It's a fungus that does some funky funky stuff to mustard plants. Seriously, you should check it out.
Last week was horrifying, a loa loa worm. Believe me, you don't want to know. It'll scare the pants right off you and then some. Don't go! Too late. I bet you just navigated back from her page unable to control yourself, and lost a few years off your life in the process.
Others she's done include
Lice (with their mini-chromosomes)
Cookie Cutter Shark (just freaky)
Hairworm (insect mind control)
Screw Worm (aka "Man-eater")
Parasitic Wasps
Candiru (murderous little catfish)
Mountain Acon Blue Butterfly (evil evil butterfly)
Cymothoa exigua (snapper nightmare)
Parasitic barnacles (making females of crabs, whether they wanted to or not)
Emerald Cockroach Wasp (pretty but *shudder*)
Dricrocoelium dendriticum (more mind control)
And now I have a handy dandy list to learn more about parasites for science fiction. And so do you.
She's even got a post on why parasites are evolution's superstars. *Shudder* Maybe, but I prefer my parasites at a distance, or, scaring the bejeebus out of my characters trapped on an alien planet populated by nasties nearly as scary as they ones we have on THIS planet.
.jpg){kind=spacer}
sounds very creepy!
Great! First it was "In Search of" that kept me up at night (those damn fire ants!), and now it's you. Thank God I didn't read this stuff last night before I went to bed...
Creepy, creepy, creepy!
I'd write more, but I keep shuddering...
You think it's bad now when it's all clinical. Wait until I bring it to horrific life in my book. Mwa hahahaha!
Sounds creepy indeed. I wonder if they'd throw in some creepy insects... termites have been bugging (puntastic?) the heck out of me lately... I'm getting a preventative treatment next month. Word of warning: If you must get a peg-leg, never pass out in a mudbath!
Also, there's the zombie-ants... ummm.. well, I'm sure there are a million freaky insects out there... spiders... uhhh.. grasshoppers?
Well, it's pretty obvious that I won't be starting a blog about freaky bugs anytime soon.
Cool, I like creepy stuff, have to check out the site.
Ahh .. life is stranger than fiction, I s'pose.
Really interesting stuffs, though. Scary but interesting.
Cool beans.
:o)
Paotie
Very cool site!
But . . . now that I know what a cookie cutter shark looks like, I'm going to be afraid to turn out the light. Because the nightmares . . . they will come.
skips off to look at the cute loa loa worm.
This is where my own phobias come leaping to the fore. I couldn't even read this post, past about the first paragraph. It's not you! It's me! Honest.
I am deeply amused that the word I need to enter to verify this post is "gossest," which I read as "grossest."
Bob and Paotie, agreed.
JD, at least the cookie cutter shark is limited to the water (hard to actually get to the bed). And really, the Candiru was at least as painful sounding. You thought the loa loa worm was CUTE? *Gasp*
Phyl, I understand fully. At least someone took my advice about not checking out these very scary critters.
My skin is crawling. Gross! I'll have to try something like this on one of my blogs :)