New pathogenic bacterium pinpointed

Related to my previous post about what diseases will be found to be caused by bacteria and viruses:

New pathogenic bacterium pinpointed - Another disease-causing bug has been found.

So we discover more and more of these bugs living in our bodies and actually causing some of the diseases doctors typically just shrug off as incurable. That’s huge. At some point, we may discover that there are enough different attacks going on at once that some might call it a war.

In a related note, I was forwarded this cool video of a parasitic worm driving a cricket to commit suicide by drowning. The worm then escapes to complete its lifecycle.

(double-click image to play video if controls aren’t visible)
from http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v440/n7085/suppinfo/440756a.html

Lest you think animals can’t be controlled, truth is, it happens all the time, and by things much bigger than a bacterium. I’m still waiting for the day we discover a pathogen that completes its lifecycle by inducing human genocide.