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It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
http://www.x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=14017		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  paulzolo [ Thu Jun 23, 2011 8:58 am ]
Post subject:  It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
No - not a crossover between two file genres, but something in real life.

Image

Quote:
A parasitic wasp protects itself from predators while cocooned by turning its ladybird host into a "bodyguard".

After a female wasp injects its egg into the ladybird, the larva munches on its host's internal tissues before breaking out through the abdomen.


It gets better (or worse, depending on your point of view):

Quote:
After injection into the ladybird, the wasp larva develops for 20 days within the host's abdomen. It then "egresses" and spins a cocoon between the ladybird's legs.

Writing in Biology Letters, the team from Montreal explained: "Both in the laboratory and under field conditions, we observed... the [ladybird], which is partially paralysed, displays a grasping behaviour on top of the cocoon and twitches at irregular intervals."

"We hypothesised that this attending behaviour results from host manipulation by the parasitoid to convert the ladybird into a bodyguard."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13860891
Author:  steve74 [ Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
Yes, I saw a BBC programme that featured the parasitic wasp, which was far more graphic and horrifying. Once it's finished devouring alive its host from the inside, it burrows out to begin its life - nature is both wonderful and cruel, isn't it!?
:o :shock:
Author:  Fogmeister [ Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:19 am ]
Post subject:  Re: It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
That reminds me of this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCOQ0VU24xw

A fungus that does a very similar thing :shock:
Author:  HeatherKay [ Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:23 am ]
Post subject:  Re: It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
Doesn't this go to prove that evolution is infinitely more flexible and remarkable than anything the god botherers can claim for their preferred deities?
Author:  paulzolo [ Thu Jun 23, 2011 10:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
steve74 wrote:
nature is both wonderful and cruel, isn't it!?


No. Nature doesn’t care. That’s the important bit to remember.
Author:  Geiseric [ Thu Jun 23, 2011 12:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
FFS why did I read that striaght after eating my lunch..... get me a bucket someone
Author:  ShockWaffle [ Thu Jun 23, 2011 7:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
HeatherKay wrote:
Doesn't this go to prove that evolution is infinitely more flexible and remarkable than anything the god botherers can claim for their preferred deities?

No
Author:  jonbwfc [ Thu Jun 23, 2011 7:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
The god botherers would almost certainly suggest that such a complicated and bizarre series of behaviours happening purely by a sequence of chance events is so improbable that it is, if anything, evidence of the existence of God and his influence in the natural world. That's what the theory of Intelligent Design is after all. The neat sleight of hand of that theory indulges in is that anything that can be used as evidence of Evolution can also be used as evidence of Intelligent Design unless you can show each intermediate stage in the evolutionary process. Which, obviously, is generally quite tricky.

Jon
Author:  ShockWaffle [ Thu Jun 23, 2011 8:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: It’s like Aliens vs Zombies
Luckily the question is moot. There is no way to move from empirical observation of the world as it is to a valid conclusion of any kind relating to questions of religion. Whether one is trying to prove that there must be a God, or that there cannot be one, the conclusion is metaphysical speculation and no facts can possibly justify it.

All that can be achieved is that scientifically minded can demonstrate themselves to be technically incompetent, and the religiously inclined can exhibit the weakness of their faith.
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