A parasite called Toxoplasma gondii lurks inside 1 in 3 people worldwide, hiding out in the brain and other organs. Now, scientists have hijacked this microorganism to shuttle drugs into the brain — ...

When a common parasite infects wolves, it changes their behavior and turns them into risk-taking animals that could help them become leaders of their pack—or get them killed. “We focus so much on ...

The brain is like a medieval castle perched on a cliff, protected on all sides by high walls, making it nearly impenetrable. Its shield is the blood-brain barrier, a layer of tightly connected cells ...

People who have been infected with the Toxoplasma gondii parasite, which is commonly found in cat feces, are more likely to have started their own companies. Yeah, you read that right. Researchers ...

For all the different kinds of manipulation in our cultural lexicon — from gaslighting to negging — nothing beats good old-fashioned mind control. Like your worst ex, one master of this power is a ...

When a parasite infects a host, it can manipulate host behavior, which may help spread the parasite to new hosts, or enable the parasite to complete its life cycle. Parasitic worms known as hairworms ...

Here’s a scoop: exposure to cat poop can increase a person’s chances of becoming an entrepreneur. Research by the University of Colorado has shown that those infected with toxoplasma, a ...

In a world full of bizarre animals, hairworms are some of the strangest: parasitic worms that manipulate the behavior of their hosts in what’s sometimes called “mind control.” A new study in the ...

An unassuming single-celled organism called Toxoplasma gondii is one of the most successful parasites on Earth, infecting an estimated 11 percent of Americans and perhaps half of all people worldwide.

Wolves are pack animals, living in family groups led by a matriarch and her mate. Some wolves stay with their pack their whole lives, helping hunt and raise pups like aunts and uncles as they mature, ...

The natural world is always fascinating, with millions of unique species for us to explore and research. But now and again, nature presents us with something so strange that it is, frankly, bizarre.

Researchers have found that the fungal parasite that makes ants zombie-like invades the ant's entire body but leaves the brain intact. Other parasites also have mind-control capabilities and some of ...