The sewer monster is made up of thousands of tiny organisms called bryozoans, or moss animacules, said N.C. State University biologist Thomas Kwak. Invertebrates, they bunch together in colonies and feed with tiny tentacles.

"They can get as big as the size of a watermelon," he said.

They've been known to clog pipes, but Raleigh officials aren't worried, even though bryozoans can move up to 10 centimeters a day. "I don't know if we've seen anything move on its own inside a sanitary sewer line," Public Utilities Director Dale Crisp said.

Previously, previously.

Now pregnant women could have the chance to hold a life-size model of their unborn baby.

I didn't know ultrasounds gave you volumetric data. Neat.

dreadwhimsy writes:

Looking back, was the short enslavement of humanity by our alien overlords, Mieux-Mieux and Praxis, really such a "reign of terror," the way the cable news media's trying portray it?

Let's not re-write history. It wasn't all that bad.

These people think you'd be better off with some parasitic worms. And they will sell them to you. Worm Therapy: Helminth-Induced Immune Modulation

My favorite bits from the FAQ:

I have heard bad things about medical treatments in Mexico.

Most of what has been reported in the American press is accurate if not prone to hyperbole.

Will I get worse before I get better?

It is not uncommon to experience what is known as the "worm flu".

How long do the worms last?

That depends on the worm you use. In the case of hookworm you can expect them to last between three to seven years. In the case of the tapeworm it is important to kill the worm before it reaches sexual maturity.

Is it safe?

We would like to take a moment to discuss hookworm specifically. This is an organism that uses a human host and though there are animal surrogates these surrogates run the risk of attenuating the organism or transmission of zoonotic disease. Thus, we use human hosts. This means that the organism that is crawling through your skin and into your bloodstream is only a few weeks removed from developing in the ovaries of its parent organism that feeds on the blood of another human. Moreover, some companies raise their hookworm from ova to the infective L3 stage using human feces. We do not. We can mitigate the risk of hookworm carrying fecal bacteria into your bloodstream and we can use hosts that are tested for blood born pathogens but there are mechanisms of vertical transovary transmission that may exist. This type of transmission of disease has not been reported in the literature and our human reservoirs undergo routine testing to mitigate the risk of co-infection. Bottom line: do your research.

Side Effects and Warnings for Beef Tapeworm

Common symptoms include loss of appetite or feeling of fullness, increased appetite, abdominal pain, weakness, headache, nausea, constipation, diarrhea, vomiting and spontaneous emergence of proglottids from the anal sphincter.

Previously, previously, previously, previously, and frankly, the entire poop tag.

Teredos and Gribbles

Two kinds of hungry pests gnaw away at the pilings that hold up structures like the FDR Drive, the U.N. school on East 25th Street, and the Con Ed plant at 14th. Teredos, which start life looking like tiny clams, grow up to be worms "as big around as your thumb, and nearly four feet long, with little triangular teeth," says commercial diver Lenny Speregen. Like underwater termites, they devour wood. And Limnoria tripunctata, a.k.a. "gribbles," are bugs about the size of a pencil dot that look like tiny armadillos, and eat not only wood but also concrete. Speregen says he's seen fifteen-inch-diameter columns that have been gnawed down, hourglass style, to three inches. The city has tried jacketing pilings in heavy plastic to keep the critters out, but it hasn't worked well: Floating ice tears up the jackets in winter. "I never said this wasn't a war," says Speregen.

New weapon turns fire ants into headless zombies

Researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants -- deploying parasitic flies that turn the pesky and economically costly insects into zombies whose heads fall off.

[...] But now the researchers are trying a tiny phorid fly, native to a region of South America where the fire ants originated. The flies lay eggs on the fire ants, and the eggs hatch into maggots inside the ant and eat away at the pest's tiny brain. The ant will get up and wander for about two weeks while the maggot feeds, said Rob Plowes, a research associate at the University of Texas at Austin.

"There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly," he said.

About a month after the egg is laid, the ant's head falls off -- and a new fly emerges ready to attack another fire ant.

Giant Sea Worm Unmasked as Coral Killer

Aquarists at the Blue Reef Aquarium in Newquay have discovered the identity of a mysterious killer that had been devastating their coral reef display over recent months. Staff at the award-winning attraction had been puzzled by violent attacks on their fragile living reefs - in some cases the corals had been literally cut in half.

After staking out the display for several weeks, aquarists decided as a last resort to take it apart rock by rock. Halfway through the process the terrifying perpetrator was finally revealed - a monstrous four-foot-long giant reef worm.

"It really does look like something out of a horror movie! It's over four feet long with these bizarre-looking jaws. Having done some research we also discovered that it is covered with thousands of bristles which are capable of inflicting a sting resulting in permanent numbness'."

Matt believes it probably arrived as a juvenile in a delivery of living rock from another aquarium.

Males with the longest and spiniest genitalia propagate their genes better than their less endowed rivals, a new study says.

Several species, especially among insects, are known to physically harm their mates in reproduction, but scientists aren't sure why these traits evolved.

The new research offers the first proof that dangerous genitalia in males can represent a reproductive advantage. The resulting wounds in the females, however, are likely just an "unfortunate side effect" of the strategy, Arnqvist said, and do not provide a reproductive benefit.

For instance, 20 to 30 seed beetle species have arisen whose males look nearly identical, but have wildly divergent sexual parts. "The male copulatory organ is the single [physical] trait that evolves very rapidly across animals," Arnqvist said.

Nadya Vessey lost her legs as a child but now she swims like a mermaid.

Ms Vessey's mermaid tail was created by Wellington-based film industry wizards Weta Workshop after the Auckland woman wrote to them two years ago asking if they could make her a prosthetic tail. She was astounded when they agreed.

She lost both legs below the knee from a medical condition when she was a child and told Close Up last night her long-held dream had come true.

The suit was made mostly of wetsuit fabric and plastic moulds, and was covered in a digitally printed sock. Mermaid-like scales were painted by hand. Mr Taylor said not only did the tail have to be functional, it was important it looked realistic. "What became apparent was that she actually physically wanted to look like a mermaid."

My friend cameo is opening an urban beekeeping store, Her Majesty's Secret Beekeeper. She's got hives. Hives all over the place. And a blog, hmsbeekeeprfeed.

What's the cheapest you can get tiny RFID tags? I was trying to talk her into lowjacking a statistically significant percentage of her bugs so that her hives can twitter.

Can someone please explain to me why they apparently photoshopped out Gabrielle Anwar's belly button in about half of the scenes it would have been visible in in the latest episode of Burn Notice?

It was way more obvious in video than it is in these stills. It's not just lighting. It's "what the fuck that woman has no navel."

(Previously, previously.)

(  --More--(10%)  )

Update: Now with higher resolution images.