![\"ducks\"](\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/0bac5_duck_background1.jpg\")
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What’s the News:<\/strong> Infections that change an organism’s personality are a strange little corner of biology, with toxoplasmosis<\/a>, which brainwashes mice and rats to have no fear of cats, topping the list. But scientists think that more pedestrian infections could play a role in shaping personality, especially when they happen early in life. Ducklings provide the latest data that this theory may have something to it.<\/p> How the Heck:<\/strong><\/p> Ducks assess an object’s color when deciding whether it’s safe, showing a noted preference for green and a dislike of orange, which researchers think might indicate that insects of that color can be toxic. What’s the News: Infections that change an organism’s personality are a strange little corner of biology, with toxoplasmosis, which brainwashes mice and rats to have no fear of cats, topping the list. But scientists think that more pedestrian infections could … Continue reading
To see whether they could get ducks to branch out, as well as be more active in unfamiliar environments, they first simulated a parasite infection by injecting ducklings at various stages of development with sheep red blood cells, which challenge the immune system in a similar way. (They didn’t infect them with real parasites because they wanted the same level of immune reaction in each duck, and it would require a much larger sample size to average out the varying effects that pathogens have on different individuals.)
Once those ducklings and their uninjected counterparts grew up, ...<\/p><\/a>
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