A Parasitic Wasp that Injects Its Venom Into a Cockroach’s Brain in Order to Control It
Today I found out that the Jewel Wasp, also known as the “Emerald Cockroach Wasp”, is a parasitic wasp that injects various mind controlling toxins into a cockroach’s brain then leads the roach back to its burrow where its hatched larva ultimately slowly eat the still living cockroach’s body from the inside out. So basically, a lot like my brother’s ex-girlfriend.
Specifically, the Wasp starts by stinging the cockroach around its midsection. This temporarily paralyzes the roach’s front legs. Now that the roach’s ability to move is slightly inhibited, the wasp makes a much more precise sting, injecting its venom into the part of the roach’s brain that controls its ability to initiate walking.
The venom injected into a specific part of the brain of the cockroach doesn’t actually affect the general motor skills of the roach. At this point, it’s perfectly capable of fleeing, if it could be motivated to do so. The problem is that the venom actually seems to inhibit the cockroaches desire to flee from potential danger and even pain, specifically by inhibiting the ability of the cockroach to begin complex behaviors, such as walking. The venom does this by blocking a specific neurotransmitter called “octopamine”. Once they are coerced into moving, they can walk just fine, though they have trouble forcing their body to continue to move.
In any event, once the wasp has injected its venom into the correct part of the cockroach’s brain, the wasp is free to lead the roach back to a burrow by gently pulling on the antennae like a leash, which provides enough external stimulus to coax the zombiefied cockroach to walk, so long as the wasp continues to tug and guide it. Once in the burrow, the magic happens. The wasp lays an egg on the roach’s abdomen. It then exits the burrow and blocks up the hole. The roach then sits around in the burrow seemingly without a care in the world.
About three days later, which is coincidentally about the same time the venom will begin to wear off, a little larva is hatched and proceeds to feed on the delectable roach. But the fun doesn’t stop here. The larva doesn’t actually eat all the roach right away. No, the roach is still quite alive when the baby wasp chews into its abdomen and proceeds to live there as a parasite. Over the next week or so, the larva eats the roach’s internal organs generally in such an order that the roach will stay alive for quite some time (four or five days). Once the larva has eaten all the innards of the roach and the roach dies, it then forms a cocoon inside the cockroach’s body from which a full grown wasp eventually emerges.
Bonus Facts:
+ Interestingly, when researchers remove the part of the cockroach’s brain that the wasp normally stings (the sub-esophageal ganglia), which handles boosting the signals that cause the cockroach to walk, among other things, the wasp will continually sting the cockroach for as much as 3 minutes in various spots, trying to find the sub-esophageal ganglia. Normally, it takes the wasps only around 15 seconds to locate and sting the correct spot. If the sub-esophageal ganglia is left in, but the nerve is cut, it fools the wasps and they only take that 15 seconds or so to locate the correct spot, like normal.
+ Researchers have actually successfully created an antidote for the Jewel Wasp’s venom, which allows the cockroach to exhibit more normal behavior after being stung. Further, they also have found that if other areas of the cockroach’s brain are injected with the Jewel wasp’s venom, even those areas around the sub-esophageal ganglia, it seems to have no major effect on the cockroach.
+ With only one mating session, the female Jewel wasp will have enough fertilized eggs to place an egg on several dozen cockroaches.
+ Jewel wasps typically live for several months and can be found in various tropical regions in Africa, India, and the Pacific Islands.
via rhamphotheca
Horrifyingly awesome
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10 Ways 3D Printing Can Be Used In Education [Infographic]
Remember when you had to make a diorama with a shoe box and construction paper in school? Well with 3D printers - your kids’ version are going to be actual replicas!
How 3D Printing Works
3D printing sounds like something from science fiction, but the process is similar to that of CNC machining, where billets are cut into specific shapes and products. But rather than cutting, it prints.
A 3D printer works by “printing” objects–but instead of using ink, it uses more substantive materials–plastics, metal, rubber, and the like. It scans an object–or takes an existing scan of an object–and slices it into layers it can then convert into a physical object.
The result is a product that while not as intricate, durable, or functional as the real-world equivalent, is otherwise a real thing that didn’t exist 30 seconds before you printed it.
In fact, what it is you’re actually producing depends on what is being printed: if it’s toy jewelry, rubber balls, and plastic chess pieces your after, you’re printing not an analogue of the real thing, but the real thing itself. Confused yet?
As far as how this can be used in education, it’s a matter of bringing objects out of the computer screen and into the hands of students for inspection, analysis, and other processes that can benefit from physical manipulation. In that way, 3D printers may eventually be able to bridge the gap between the physical and the digital–use a screen to find what you need, then print it into existence.
11 Ways 3D Printing Can Be Used In Education
1. Engineering design students can print out prototypes
2. Architecture students can print out 3D models of designs
3. History classes can print out historical artifacts for examination
4. Graphic Design students can print out 3D versions of their artwork
5. Geography students can print out topography, demographic, or population maps
6. Cooking students can create molds for food products
7. Automotive students can print out replacement parts or modified examples of existing parts for testing
8. Chemistry students can print out 3D models of molecules
9. Biology students can print out cells, viruses, organs, and other critical biological artifacts
10. Math students can print out “problems” to solve in their own learning spaces, from scale models to city infrastructural design challenges
via futuretechreport
I want one.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/d57acb4477276edda1915290fc04d194/tumblr_mnmhvpDXU91qbr8m0o1_500.jpg)
