Creature Feature: Malaria.

Malaria is one of those diseases that one only hears about in third world, tropical countries (but used to be more widespread). Most people only know that it is spread by mosquitoes and that it really, really sucks to get because there is no real cure. This is the tropical disease that single-handedly renders nations poor and incapable of economic recovery. It's that bad.

Actually, this is kinda cute.

Oh, and it's a critter. Not a virus, not a bacterium, a single-celled critter commonly called a protist. More accurately, any disease caused by a microscopic organism called a Plasmodium can be called "malaria." There are several Plasmodium species that can infect humans including P. falciparum, P. malariae, P. ovale, P. vivax, and P. knowlesi. P. falciparum is the one that most people are worried about, although any one of the above will at least ruin your year.

While most parasites try to make their presence as innocuous as possible, malaria does not even try. It can incubate for up to a year without any noticeable symptoms, but after that, its presence becomes known very quickly. This is not a friendly parasite; it makes a tapeworm look like a good neighbor.

 
Yeah. Kinda like this in comparison to malaria.

The symptoms of malaria vary slightly from species to species. Common indicators are fever, chills, and headaches. If left untreated, the spleen may also swell (do you know where your spleen is?), and, eventually, the parasites can cross the blood-brain barrier, causing coma and death. Since some  parasites use the liver as part of their life cycle, thorough tests for malaria require both blood and liver examinations.

Malaria starts its life in the gut of an Anopheles mosquito. The mosquito bites an infected human, sucking immature plasmodia into her gut. They mature slightly into sporozoites and travel to her saliva. Then, she is ready to bite and start the cycle again. We realize that one mosquito may well look like the next to most of you, but please be on the lookout for this one:

Once inside a human, the sporozoites (the wormy things from earlier) rupture, releasing countless merozoites. These swiftly infect red blood cells and reproduce asexually within them. P. falciparum goes for the liver before heading towards the blood; when the infected liver cells burst, the malaria then goes for the erythrocytes. In short, these are protozoans that reproduce like a virus.

This might actually make a bitchin' roller coaster.

 

Over time, there have been a number of "cures" for malaria. The first was quinine, a substance originally found in the cichona tree in the Peruvian Andes. Several other drugs, including fakes common in Asia, have since been developed, but Plasmodium protists gain drug resistance just like bacteria and viruses do. They evolved with us and will continue to evolve with us.

We're fucked.



Tomorrow: It looks like a kingsnake, but it swims!

Creature Feature: Slime Molds.

Don't bitch at me for not doing an animal today. There is no animal quite as freaky as this crazy...thing:


The video above is sped up; slime molds do move, but they move slowly (or quickly for little organisms, take your pick). 1 millimeter per hour is not very fast, but it is something; some lucky slime molds can win marathons at 2 cm per hour. Most fungi do not move at all.


Unless you happen to be on 'shrooms. Then you can tell the purple unicorn in your bedroom that we said hi.

Slime molds are not molds. They are...themselves (the ones visible to the naked eye are myxomycetes). Nobody really knows where to put them; they used to be fungi, then were moved into their own taxonomic category. When all is said and done, they will still probably be classified as eccentric fungi or protists (which is sort of a catch-all category).


Or discarded bubble gum. There's another one called "dog vomit."

Slime molds start life as amoeboid, single-celled organisms. They eat bacteria, so, like most fungi, they can often be found on decaying logs. When they encounter an individual of the opposite mating type (sorry, not all tiny critters are as gay as rotifers), they form zygotes and soon become long, sticky plasmodia.

The plasmodia stage is what gives slime molds their name. In this stage, slimy, multinucleic threads start feeding like crazy. technically, this huge mass is a single cell with many nuclei. Eventually, the slimy mass forms fruiting bodies similar to larger versions of the sporangia found on regular molds. The cycle begins anew after that.

Not remotely like Japanese porn.

Still not creeped out? Slime mold feeding bodies can get several meters in diameter (and they are not even the largest unicellular organisms). They can pick the shortest road out of a maze despite lacking a nervous system, much less a brain. In the future, they might even evolve into something like this:



If you're slightly less optimistic, they may also evolve into giant blobs.

(P.S. - Like my fish? :D)

Creature Feature: Noctiluca scintillans.

Props to whomever named these little guys. "Sparkling night lights" describes them perfectly. (I also adore the kanji used for them: "Night light bug." I also saw "umihotaru," "sea firefly.")

What, exactly, are these magical creatures? Edward Cullen's sweat? Disco lights from the abyss? The result of leftover acid from Mother Nature's cephalopod binge?

Actually, they're the first protozoan that I've ever done a feature on. Noctiluca scintillans is a single-celled organism that feeds on other, smaller organisms, such as plankton, fish eggs, and bacteria. Less-Latinate names for these little sparklers include "Sea Ghosts" and "Fire of the Sea." (I smell either a Ghost/Water or Fire/Water Pokemon coming up because of these...oh, wait, Nintendo has lost all creativity, and is hopelessly shilling its beloved franchise with far too many dragons and less species variety than before. Never mind.)

By itself, a single N. scintillans does not look like much. It is far from the most intimidating dinoflagellate; really, a lone N. scintillans looks almost like a pig's behind once seen via microscope or strong magnifying glass. Other dinoflagellates look like malformed ninja death stars.

Wait, "dinoflagellates?" Your learned about those in biology class, didn't you? Those are the things that cause red tide!

Yes, yes they are. The glow that lights up the sea every so often is caused by a "red tide" population bloom of N. scintillans. Every time the sea lights up, millions of N. scintillans are all chowing down on an overabundant food source (usually phytoplankton). They are not toxic by themselves, and can produce a whole rainbow of eerily-glowing colors.

These guys glow for the same reason that fireflies do: They produce the enzyme luciferase (which is totally NOT related to Satan, haha) and flash it whenever they feel threatened. Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it.

あなたは。。。妖精の存在を信じますか。