Of lice and men: An itchy history
February 14th, 2011 |
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Ponder the louse. Consider its plural, lice. Try now not to scratch the multiple itches that have just populated your head at the very thought of these near-microscopic insects crawling around in that forest of hair follicles, laying eggs, sucking blood, and generally creeping you out. The thing is, your head may not be the [...]
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Full genome sequence shows body lice have lousy sense of smell
June 21st, 2010 |
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The body louse, a plague to humans and our ancestors for millions of years, subsists exclusively on our unwitting hospitality. Scientists have now parsed the modern human body louse’s (Pediculus humanus humanus) genome, revealing a deep evolutionary dependence on humans and "remarkable completeness," despite being the shortest yet decoded in the insect group, the researchers [...]
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