Cat lover? You could be infected..
Do
you ever feel like your cat is making you go absolutely crazy? Well, new
studies suggest that cats may have a large effect on our minds, and microbes
happen to play a part in this. A microbe called Toxoplasma gondii, which likes to live in cats, is the cause
toxoplasmosis (a disease that is deadly to unborn children). This microbe can
come into contact with humans through cat feces, which is why pregnant woman
are advised to avoid cats’ litter boxes. Originally scientists didn’t believe
that this microbe had much of an effect on humans, but that has recently
changed due to a man by the name of Jaroslav Flegr. Flegr has long suspected
that this microbe has had an effect on people’s minds, but nobody believed him.
Finally, researchers looked into his theory and found surprising results.
Through labs, researchers found that when T.
gondii infected mice, those mice acted more excited than uninfected mice. The
lab work they did suggested that the T.
gondii essentially takes over the minds of these mice and makes them more
attractive to cats. The reason is because T.
gondii can only reproduce inside of cats, so its essential for this microbe
to find a way back inside a cat. 
This article was extraordinarily
well written. It was full of scientific facts and references to scientists and
researchers that played a role in this study. However, this study is so new
that the information given is almost overwhelming. The author of the article compares
this microbe to that of other “mind-controlling” microbes which makes the
article much stronger. The author asks questions throughout the article and
answers them through scientific data. Personally there is no real way to
summarize this article, because it brings up new research, questions and
concerns among the scientific community. If you have the chance, I highly
recommend you read it!
Wow Ana, this is really cool I love any kind of research with microbes and animals, As Diana had explained microbes and animals are an area of research that is interesting and not alot of information is out there. I always wondered why I thought my cat was so awesome, it doesn't matter what the miniature I walk in the door I want to go over and play with him. This article does that and you did a really good job of summarizing the article as well as giving what you thought of the authors findings. I think some things you may include that would better your analysis would include the impacts this research could have on us, furthermore add in outside information and research does it coincide with other outside data.
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