Monday, May 12, 2008

Parasites, Markets and Host Behavior, from Victor Niederhoffer

From Daily Speculations:

The parasite T. Gondii lives in rats but must get transmitted to cats to complete its life cycle. It does this by changing the rat brain so that it seeks out cats. When the cat eats the rat, the parasite gets transmitted through droppings to other mice and humans. The incidence of schizophenia in humans is about 25% higher in those 7% of the human population that have contracted the parasite than the rest of the population....MORE