In another world, I would've found this bug to be really cool. But unfortunately, the only reason I'm familiar with this bug is because of coming into close encounters with it. And my anxiety does not appreciate it.

Sources:

Rove beetles and the 10 plagues of Egypt

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(02)08759-7/fulltext

Endosymbiont source of pederin

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC137826/

Insects vs LEDs (very digestible and well written research paper)

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5108255/

Rove beetles vs LEDs

⁠https://www.researchgate.net/publication/387343033_Exploring_the_Use_of_White_Light_Emitting_Diodes_to_Mitigate_'Acid_Fly'_Attacks⁠

Also shout out to HowStuffWorks for all the lightbulb knowledge I wish I had during physics 101.

A world killer strain, New Zealand GMO politics, activated sludge, and why semen has such a distinct smell. All from a small genus of bacteria that many scientists say isn't even a valid genus. There's a lot to get into!

The tea:

Dr. Ingram's original paper

http://www.ask-force.org/web/debate/KlebsiellaHolmes1999.pdf

Dr. Ingram's testimony to NZ

https://gmwatch.org/en/news/archive/2001/4029-dr-elaine-inghams-testimony-executive-summary-before-the-new-zealand-royal-commission-on-genetic-modification?utm_source=chatgpt.com

The rebuttal

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0102/S00070.htm

Apologies and back and forth (extra tea)

https://gmwatch.org/en/news/archive/2001/8951-full-story-of-the-dr-elaine-ingham-controversy-over-klebsiella-p

Other fun papers:

Drancourt et al. (2001) study

https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/docserver/fulltext/ijsem/51/3/0510925a.pdf?expires=1760686959&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=BAE95A55980B8131308A058DE1EEFED3

Ma et al. (2022) study

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0923250821000656#bib9

Research America Survey

https://www.researchamerica.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/National-Survey-on-Attitudes-on-Food-and-Nutrition-Brief.pdf

(The long wait in between episodes definitely had nothing to do with the full release of Slime Rancher 2 and I definitely did not spend hours trying to 100% complete the game.)

Includes lots of fun (and not so fun) facts about cats. And I probably talk way too much about scientific classifications.

Here's some cool articles I read:

Overview

https://todaysveterinarypractice.com/parasitology/cytauxzoonosis-in-cats/

https://vetfolio-vetstreet.s3.amazonaws.com/mmah/32/c5acc9bf3640cdadae03c60626f921/filePV_27_01_69.pdf

Apicomplexan life cycle

https://www2.tulane.edu/~wiser/protozoology/notes/api.html

Collars Efficacy Study

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23760871/

Ointment Efficacy Study

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304401718303558?via%3Dihub#sec0010