Nibbles: Camel sweets, UG99, British woods, Rice, India and climate change, Soay sheep, Fish, Seed fair, Barn owls, Food maps, Earthworms

Commensal’s parasite driving human diversity?

So let me get this right. The parasite Toxoplasma gondii changes the behaviour of the rats it infects when they eat cat faeces by making said rats less scared of cats, which makes them more liable to be eaten by said cats, which is good for said parasite as it helps it complete its life cycle. More than weird enough. But the little bugger also affects the behaviour of the humans it infects, and may contribute to cultural diversity? Get outta here!

Connecting through food

In Bittersweet, a new column on GlobalPost, Matt McAllester writes about how food connects us and the people who cook it to faraway lands.

Last month he went looking for wild boar meat in Baghdad. Obviously like to set himself ambitious targets, our Matt. Anyway, well worth a read. Unfortunately you can’t subscribe to his stuff alone, but GlobalPost is an excellent general news site.