#sleeping sickness

[mindblowingscience]

Scientists Solve 40-Year-Old Mystery of Sleeping Sickness Parasite

The tropical disease known as sleeping sickness is caused by the African Trypanosoma brucei parasite.

The tropical disease known as sleeping sickness is caused by the African Trypanosoma brucei parasite. For decades, scientists have been unable to pin down exactly how this parasite successfully evades detection in its hosts – until now. What was already known was that the bug wears a 'molecular cloak', made up of the variant surface glycoprotein (VSG) protein. This outer layer is constantly being renewed in order to evade detection by the immune system.

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[spookyy-mulderrr]

[ephealtes]

[amannamedcolton]

And I'm afraid

To sleep because of what haunts me

Such as living with the uncertainty

That I'll never find the words to say

Which would completely explain

Just how I'm breaking down

[ravenplaylist]

April 10, 2025 - Sleeping Sickness by City and Colour

[jamabushi]

omniphobia is a vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil

[bpod-bpod]

Shrugging Off Insults

Trypanasome parasites – single cell organisms causing sleeping sickness and Chagas disease – shirk attacking antibodies from their host's immune system by rapidly recycling their surface membrane. Here the process is elucidated by high-res techniques including electron and fluorescence microscopy

Read the published article here

Video from work by Fabian Link and colleagues

Department of Cell & Developmental Biology, Biocentre, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, April 2024

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[punchthingandgrowplant]

Yee Haw, just finished reading Libba Bray's Lair of Dreams, the second book in the diviners series. And, BOY. 5 stars.

I love everything paranormal and witchy, occult and thrilling. This book was all of that wrapped up into a historical setting of the 1920s which just made it even better. The main plot line of this book was absolutely terrifying and the side plot lines were highly intriguing, making the switch between characters and scenes smooth. I didn't want to skip a single page. The characters themselves have so much depth. I would highly recommend.

Make sure to read the first book first though! It's just as amazing and sets things up for the second novel in little ways that you don't notice until you're reading it!