According to Science China, it is well known that besides humans, there are other creatures of different forms on the earth. Together we share the resources of the Earth and the ecosystem that sustains us. Among all creatures, humans have been acting as the "boss" due to their leading intelligence. But in reality, a group of seemingly weakest and most insignificant creatures have been in the hidden corners, controlling the various organisms that crush them on the physical plane. They are parasitic organisms.
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As the name implies, a parasite is an organism that lives on the surface or inside another organism and takes nutrients from the host to sustain life.
Parasites account for about 40% of all known animal species, some of which are "worms" visible to the naked eye and others are invisible bacteria, viruses and fungi. This group of creatures, although "simple-minded", "limbs" is not developed, but they can drive a variety of large, to achieve their purpose.
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Parasites and other animals
For example, there is a single-celled parasitic microorganism called Toxoplasma gondii, which can "charm" and change the nature of the host in order to achieve the task of reproducing offspring. Toxoplasma gondii's primary host is a thermostatic vertebrate, but its ultimate host is the cat, so the mouse becomes its perfect ride. To reach its destination, after invading the mouse, Toxoplasma gondii will express itself into the cat's mouth by manipulating the mouse's neural circuitry and transforming the mouse's fear of the cat, into attraction.
Toxoplasma gondii parasites and cats (stock copyright images, not authorized for reproduction)
There is also a genus of parasites, the colorful larvae suckers, which not only change the behavior of the host, but also give it a beautiful face and attract predators. Its intermediate host is the snail, and in order to reach its final host (the bird), it quickly hatches and invades the snail's eye stalk, causing it to lose its ability to contract and turning it into a colored "glow stick" filled with eggs. The modified snails also change their habits and are no longer diurnal, but active during the day, even climbing to higher leaves to lure birds to peck at them.
Parasitic white-banded fungus with Antarctic snails (stock copyright images, not authorized for reproduction)
Similarly, there is the Lancet liverworm that turns ants into "zombies", the wireworm that forces praying mantises to dive, the crab slave that makes crabs ignore their young and take care of their offspring instead, and so on. All of these parasites play with host organisms that are larger and more complex than they are.
You may think that these hosts are lower creatures with relatively simple constructions, and that humans such as complex ones are not so easily controlled. But in fact, each person's preferences, personality, and body type are not determined by themselves. In other words, you can become what you are now, is influenced by the parasites.02 parasites and human body (including the body surface) in more than a thousand species of microorganisms, the number is up to 100 trillion, about 10 times the number of human body cells. The sum of the genetic material of these microorganisms is about 150 times more than our own genetic material.
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The most direct way to affect humans is to cause disease.
For example, guinea worm releases an acidic substance that causes human skin to blister with a burning sensation. Once the victim submerges the inflamed area in water, the female will take advantage of the opportunity to lay eggs and parasitize the daphnia, waiting for the next parasitic cycle to begin.
The rabies virus affects the body's central nervous system, which is responsible for functions such as aggression, sex, hunger and thirst, causing patients to act strangely.
And some parasitic organisms affect humans in ways that are difficult for us to perceive directly. Plasmodium, for example, may amplify your body odor or induce an odor that attracts mosquitoes.
Malaria-infected red blood cells (Gallery copyrighted image, reproduction not authorized)
The aforementioned Toxoplasma gondii can likely directly affect the human personality. People infected with Toxoplasma do not have further physical health problems, but rather mental or personality problems.
Studies have found that people infected with Toxoplasma are more likely to worry, experience guilt, doubt themselves, feel insecure, be less responsive, and have impaired concentration and reflexes, and are more than six times more likely to be involved in a traffic accident than those who are not infected. In addition, Toxoplasma gondii is likely to be associated with schizophrenia. In addition to these invasive parasites, there is a group of parasites in the human body that live with us almost all the time. Your happiness and sadness, your height and weight may be related to them. For example, microbes that live in the gut produce several types of neurotransmitters that regulate our emotions, notably dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. They also send signals to the brain that tell it "you're full or not", which can affect how fat or thin you are.
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Some scientists believe that the evolution of the human brain, parasitic organisms may have acted as the "designer" role. In order to limit the access of parasites to the brain and increase the cost of manipulation, the human brain has evolved into what it is today. In short, you can be "you" and we can be "us", not by unilateral choice. Or rather, you are not "you" at all, and we are not "we", we are just parasitic superorganisms. And the so-called free will, may be some kind of parasitic organism at work.
