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Pet parasites might alter the human brain


This low-key article from New Scientist might be the key to explaining people's response to pets:

Parasite hijacks brains with surgical precision
A mere parasite controls the fate of rats and mice by hijacking the part of the brain that makes the rodents naturally fear cats, a new study shows. Rats and mice normally flee if they smell cat urine, but not if they're infected by the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii. The parasite can only complete its life cycle if its rodent host is eaten by a cat, so it "brainwashes" the creature into apparently liking the scent.  

Solar corona temperature

The solar corona temperature is around 1 million degrees. This is a long-standing puzzle for scientists.

I wonder if this puzzle is related to our concept of temperature. In effect temperature is a measure of the random collisions between particles. Traditionally temperatures increase when the particles are forced closer together (compressed) or move faster (heated).

But this assumes that the direction of motion is random. What if all the velocities are aligned? This would reduce the number of collisions and lower the observed temperature.

More radically, what if half the particles moved in the opposite direction like the LHC? Would this cause the observed temperature to skyrocket? Maybe there are +ve and -ve particles whirling around the Sun, constrained by magnetic fields and these particles collide causing the high temperature.



Corona Virus - 2020

(nothing to do with the Solar Corona above - we hope!)

Douglas Adams (HItchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) predicts the spread of a virulent pathogen through dirty telephones: