Here, Hold My Head
Because of unforeseen circumstances, I don’t have a new missive for you this week, so I’m sharing one of the more popular items from the past. (Though the fact that this one was particularly popular makes me wonder about you guys.) See you with something new in two weeks!
Avery
There’s a passage in Terry Pratchett’s book Thief of Time where a Yeti lets someone cut off his head. (The person doing the chopping is the hero of the story, so you know that somehow this is all going to work out, and it does. It’s not even gory.) I was reminded of that scene when I saw this news bit in Science a week or so ago: Some sea slugs can regenerate a body after their heads have been cut off. A few years ago I wrote a book about animals that could regenerate limbs and so on. But a whole new body? That’s a big deal!
But that’s not the reason I’m sharing this weird fact with you today. Here’s what caught my attention (and reminded me of the Yeti story from Thief of Time): The slug cuts off its own head. In the study (published in Current Biology) the researchers called it “self-decapitation.” But it actually seems more like the slug cuts its body off. Because at least one reason slugs do such a strange thing is to get rid of a body invested with parasites. Riddled with worms? Easy peasy: Dump the infested body. Grow a new one.
And how does it pull off this trick? According to the scientists who discovered this odd behavior, the slug temporarily turns itself into a plant. It then photosynthesizes what it needs to live until it gets its body back.
It’s a neat trick. But if the sea slug asked me, I’d recommend at least trying a dose of ivermectin first.
’til next time,
Avery