Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on on mythical creatures, ideas,
Speaker 1: and monsters in time. In the Warhammer forty universe, the
Speaker 1: Underhive of Necromunda is a subterranean maze of industrial grime
Speaker 1: and dystopian anarchy. You're way better off running away from
Speaker 1: most innocence of the Underhive, but one of its monsters
Speaker 1: is also a sought after commodity, the parasitic icrotic slime.
Speaker 1: As described in the publication Necromunda Outlander's rule Book, an
Speaker 1: adult necrotic slime is a slow moving, fist size globe
Speaker 1: of translucent sludge. It creeps up on a slumbering humanoid.
Speaker 1: It first engulfs the sleeper's head before oozing into the
Speaker 1: flesh and eventually colonizing the host's brain. Once in the brain,
Speaker 1: the slime reproduces and the young feast on the gray matter,
Speaker 1: which turns the host into a shambling zombie, and eventually
Speaker 1: the creatures burst through the host's skull. This is all
Speaker 1: pretty standard sci fi brain parasite stuff, to be sure,
Speaker 1: But the really interesting wrinkal in the creature's life cycle
Speaker 1: is the way it defends itself during its initial conquest
Speaker 1: of a new host. It's slow moving and not particularly strong,
Speaker 1: so you could simply pull it off your head before
Speaker 1: it has a chance to seep into your flesh. But
Speaker 1: to protect itself during this vulnerable stage, we're told this
Speaker 1: fictional slime releases chemicals to induce a feeling of power
Speaker 1: and euphoria in the host. They feel so good they
Speaker 1: simply don't want to remove the slime from their head.
Speaker 1: As such, some of the many desperate denizens of the
Speaker 1: Underhives us the slime as a narcotic, trusting a friend
Speaker 1: or an accomplice to simply remove the slime from their
Speaker 1: head before matters progress too far. It's a wonderfully dark creation,
Speaker 1: clearly drawing on natural world examples of brain eating amibas
Speaker 1: and such behavior hijacking parasites as the protozoa, Toxoplasma GANDHI.
Speaker 1: Various parasites are known for their ability to hijack behavior,
Speaker 1: but I don't think I'd ever read about one from
Speaker 1: the real world that's linked to feelings of euphoria. Euphoria
Speaker 1: is generally associated with a number of typical life experiences
Speaker 1: and activities, but of course it can be boosted by
Speaker 1: various substances or generated via brain disease or injury. But
Speaker 1: euphoria as a product of host manipulation by a parasite, again,
Speaker 1: nothing turned up in my research. But as Martin Hyle
Speaker 1: discusses in the two thousand sixteen Frontiers and Ecology and
Speaker 1: Evolution paper, host manipulation by parasites, any manipulation by parasite
Speaker 1: will depend on a physical or molecular trigger that comes
Speaker 1: with a metabolic cost. That cost would have to balance
Speaker 1: out in the creature's evolution. While some studies have linked
Speaker 1: Toxoplasma gandhi to libido in some host subjects, we really
Speaker 1: don't see anything like, say, the sex parasites from David
Speaker 1: Cronenberg's film Shivers in the real world. In both Necromunda
Speaker 1: and Shivers, the monstrous parasites in question are far more
Speaker 1: useful as a means of commenting upon or exploring other
Speaker 1: social concerns. However, I did find discussion of a southeastern
Speaker 1: African plant known as kat or katha edulis. The plant
Speaker 1: contains a stimulant and when chewed, can produce feelings of
Speaker 1: excitement meant appetite loss and even euphoria. Like other euphoria
Speaker 1: inducing botanical substances. We're not talking about a parasite here,
Speaker 1: but according to a two thousand and twenty two paper
Speaker 1: by Jacob Nehru Nahiga for the Jomo Kenyatta University of
Speaker 1: Agriculture and Technology, the leaves as sold in parts of
Speaker 1: Kenya are sometimes contaminated with intestinal parasites, generally due to
Speaker 1: quote poor storage of leaves, personal hygiene, and polluted environmental conditions.
Speaker 1: It's not quite a sci fi brain slug, but it
Speaker 1: checks off a couple of the boxes here under some circumstances.
Speaker 1: Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week.
Speaker 1: As always, you can email us at contact at Stuff
Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind dot com Stuff to Blow Your Mind.
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