Alpha wolves and sexual evolution Join us on a journey from a cat’s intestines to a virgin aphid that’s pregnant with another pregnant virgin aphid.
Are you an alpha, or a beta? Whether you’re risk-averse or leader of the pack may be determined by parasitic microbes that hijack your nervous system – at least in rats and wolves. We dive deep into the exciting life of Toxoplasma gondii, the little protozoan that just really wants to be inside a cat.
Why do we have sex? No, really. It’s costly, risky and incredibly time-consuming. And yet, this reproductive strategy has taken the natural world by storm. We gather clues from an aphid-infested bunch of kale to unravel the mystery of why sex rules.