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Two Tickets to Parasites

Caustic Soda Episode 2: “Two Tickets to Parasite” AKA “Things That Make You Go EUGHHHH” – Joe, Kevin and Toren talk about liver flukes, ichneumon wasps, guinea worms, the life cycle of the facehugger and the chestburster, and of course Star Trek 2’s ceti eel. Featuring “Burrow Your Way to my Heart” by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.”

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Episode 1 Update: Here’s the painting of “Watson and the shark”

Here are the images from Episode 2: Parasites

Here’s our pinup, the Bedbug from Giantmicrobes.com

and here are the rest of the images, currently in no particular order:

And this episode’s videos:

Guinea worm (can’t embed, sorry!)

Links!

26 Responses

  1. Ahahaha, this was a great listen.
    you guys are bloody hilarious and my god i didnt know snails were so bad ass … thanks for the info!

  2. AWESOME! I love this podcast now. First episode I was on the wall, but this got me hooked. Great job guys.

  3. AWESOME! I love this podcast now. First episode I was on the wall, but this got me hooked. Great job guys.

  4. Episode two was a definite improvement over episode one. Keep up the good work.

    That bug that eats the fish’s tongue and replaces it nearly drove me to madness. No other podcast has even come close to such a feat!

  5. Episode two was a definite improvement over episode one. Keep up the good work.

    That bug that eats the fish’s tongue and replaces it nearly drove me to madness. No other podcast has even come close to such a feat!

  10. I could not sleep after this episode; I am a total parasitophobe. Alien, I remember watching and all I could think about was closing all the windows because that left me deathly afraid of parasites.

  11. I could not sleep after this episode; I am a total parasitophobe. Alien, I remember watching and all I could think about was closing all the windows because that left me deathly afraid of parasites.

  12. Great show guys, and I like the online resources (pics, vids, links, etc). With regard to the pop culture references, I was surprised you missed my absolute favourite parasite – the Babelfish from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy! Awesome if you haven’t read it (can’t imagine you haven’t though).

    Keep up the great work. I’ve just started listening to you, so I’ve got a lot of episodes to go. :o)

  13. Great show guys, and I like the online resources (pics, vids, links, etc). With regard to the pop culture references, I was surprised you missed my absolute favourite parasite – the Babelfish from Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers’ Guide To The Galaxy! Awesome if you haven’t read it (can’t imagine you haven’t though).

    Keep up the great work. I’ve just started listening to you, so I’ve got a lot of episodes to go. :o)

  14. Great episode. Re the parasite that attacks the eyes of the Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus)- the shark is very sluggish (“Somniosus”- “sleepy”) and slow moving most of the time- at 7 metres or so, it’s basically a huge dogfish. The ocular parasite they get is a string-like, pink or yellowish copepod (a form of crustacean, most of which are parasitic) known as Ommatokoita elongata. The parasite infects 90% of all S.microcephalus and does adversely affect their sight- but it is thought that the squirming, worm-like O. elongata hanging prominently from the shark’s eyes attracts curious fish etc to the shark’s face, thus getting the shark food. Studies suggest that infected S. microcephalus eat better than those that don’t have the parasite. As to how the copepod gets from one shark to the other- the parasite releases its larvae into the water, and the larvae are free-swimming.

  15. Great episode. Re the parasite that attacks the eyes of the Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus)- the shark is very sluggish (“Somniosus”- “sleepy”) and slow moving most of the time- at 7 metres or so, it’s basically a huge dogfish. The ocular parasite they get is a string-like, pink or yellowish copepod (a form of crustacean, most of which are parasitic) known as Ommatokoita elongata. The parasite infects 90% of all S.microcephalus and does adversely affect their sight- but it is thought that the squirming, worm-like O. elongata hanging prominently from the shark’s eyes attracts curious fish etc to the shark’s face, thus getting the shark food. Studies suggest that infected S. microcephalus eat better than those that don’t have the parasite. As to how the copepod gets from one shark to the other- the parasite releases its larvae into the water, and the larvae are free-swimming.

  16. I will probably do a terrible job trying to explain this, but I’m going to try anyway. This might also be a HUGE spoiler, so if anyone was wanting to read the books, I’m sorry.

    About a year or two ago, a book came out called “Feed” by Mira Grant. A year afterwards, the second book, “Deadline” came out. The series is actually about zombies, but in the second book, towards the end, they bring up a concept called “viral parasitism”. Basically, the zombie virus in the series is constructed of two genetically engineered viruses, one to cure the common cold and one to cure cancer. The two met up and started making the dead walk the earth. In the second book, as I said, research on the virus shows that it manipulates its hosts (any mammal over 40 pounds, I think is what the book says) so that all they do is perpetuate the virus. After listening to this podcast a second time I thought that whole concept of “viral parasitism” could be considered relevant.

  17. I will probably do a terrible job trying to explain this, but I’m going to try anyway. This might also be a HUGE spoiler, so if anyone was wanting to read the books, I’m sorry.

    About a year or two ago, a book came out called “Feed” by Mira Grant. A year afterwards, the second book, “Deadline” came out. The series is actually about zombies, but in the second book, towards the end, they bring up a concept called “viral parasitism”. Basically, the zombie virus in the series is constructed of two genetically engineered viruses, one to cure the common cold and one to cure cancer. The two met up and started making the dead walk the earth. In the second book, as I said, research on the virus shows that it manipulates its hosts (any mammal over 40 pounds, I think is what the book says) so that all they do is perpetuate the virus. After listening to this podcast a second time I thought that whole concept of “viral parasitism” could be considered relevant.

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