Science Memes

10885 readers

4123 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
Keep it rooted (on topic).
No spam.
Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

[email protected]

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

346

party time (mander.xyz)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Just read the Wikipedia entry for that fungus. I saw cathinone was mentioned, but I did not see anything about psilocybin

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massospora_cicadina

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/19/cicadas-fungus-mate-more-massospora-cicadina

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cicadas-zombies-hyper-sexual-sexually-transmitted-fungus-expected-to-emerge-this-year-massospora-cicadina/

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Neither of these links state psilocybin is in the fungus.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Actually you're right, but I found a better source: https://www.science.org/content/article/psychedelic-keeps-cicada-flying-even-after-fungus-has-destroyed-its-abdomen

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/375105v1

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

From your second link:

Here we report the discovery, through global and targeted metabolomics supported by metagenomics and proteomics, of the plant amphetamine, cathinone, in Massospora cicadina-infected periodical cicadas, and the mushroom tryptamine, psilocybin, in M. platypediae- and M. levispora-infected annual cicadas.

It appears that the two chemicals come from two different fungi. Or I could be misinterpreting that.

Edit: PS. I appreciate all of the content that you post. I just thought this was an interesting subject.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

No worries. I am half distracted tonight :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

There we are. Thank you for your diligence!