Friday, January 15, 2010

Got Lice?


Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. Parasites are organisms that live in the tissues of other organisms which causes damage to the host with out killing it immediately. Parasitologist studies theses parasites in a lab and their way of life as well as how they effect their host and connect the dynamic between them. This also includes the development of drugs and how the parasite could have been transmitted from animals to humans. Some parasites include, lice, ticks, blood flukes, ringworm and tapeworms.

This type of scientist would appeal to me because it seems so fascinating to study creatures that feed off of others. Parasites are also very common because there are more parasites than free living organisms. More specifically, in the parasitology field, I am more interested in Medical Parasitology which studies how parasites effect humans and how to treat and get rid of the parasite. That way, I would help humans and relieve them form suffering due to parasites.

This scientific field would match my interest because ever since I was young, i loved grossing people out with some new fact that I learned. By being a parasitologist, I would be able to study some of these organisms that i once found interesting and gross when i was younger.

This profession of being a parasitologist would meet my goals because I always wanted an interesting job that does not involve sitting in a cubical. By being a parasitologist, i would fulfill my goal of doing something interesting. Plus, the ever changing science field would make it even more interesting to study something of this field. (I heard the pay is pretty good too. ;D)

This profession would match my learning skills because I am a kinetic and visual learner. Working with parasites would fulfill both skills because i would have to look at diagrams and do lots of hand on work and experiments.

Being a parasitologist would leave a legacy for future generations because as long as there are organisms, there will be parasites. Parasites affect humans greatly and have led to extreme human mortality in the past and in the present, for example malaria. For the safety and health of future generations, parasitologist have to keep studying parasites and stop them from starting an epidemic.




Information from Careers in parasitology and Parasitology.com

Video from youtube
Lice photo from Dr. Paul.com
Mosquito photo from TopNews.In

6 comments:

bipulg said...

Wait, so if parasites feed off of other organisms, then how would one know if they were a host for a parasite before the eventual death? Are there odd symptoms?

Hannah said...

Thats a good question. How would they exactly? And how would you treat a parasite especially if its a living thing practically eating you alive?

casers54 said...

I'm sure there would have to be symptoms because you never hear of people dying from lice. These symptoms are probably just different for each parasite because each parasite is different itself. For example, there are some that you can see and some that you can't see, so you wouldn't be able to just find the ones you can't see by yourself.

Bethany13 said...

I'm not sure about this but I heard that there are some parasites that don't cause any harm, so if your diagnosed with them you don't actually get treatment for it. I don't remember where I heard that but it would be interesting if you know anything about it.

Anna2013 said...

This job is quite interesting, but I find it kind of gross studying and dealing with parasites like lice. I hate bugs but this is really a cool job. Could lice feed off of you enough to kill you if you never noticed you had lice?

Rizzo said...

Well, also, she might be studying the benefits of parasites. If you get rid of all your parasites or live so cleanly that you don't have any at all, then you can contract a serious disease that's incurable, so parasites can be good too... Although lets be honest, they are really gross.