Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. Thus far in the Alien Monster Fact series, we've discussed everything from the mysterious engineers and their black goo, to the xenomorph egg and the face hugger that emerges from it. As we all know, the next phase in the alien life cycle is the violent eruption of the free living chest burster, which swiftly grows to become an adult xenomorph, sometimes referred to as a stage four xenomorph or simply a drone or warrior in science fiction. The Biology of the Alien in Alien by armand Im Kurus and Mona why Lau, published just last year in the Portland Press. The authors describe the xenomorph's parasitic development inside the host as lining up with natural world coinobiant parasitoids parasites that attack hosts that then continue feeding and growing during the parasitism. Because, of course, we see this in the original nineteen seventy nine film Alien, when Caine's face hugger falls away, he awakens and acts like his old self again. He chats and jokes with his crewmates. He enjoys a meal and prepares to carry on his ship duties, right before the creature inside him violently emerges. Couris and Low compared this to various parasitoid wasps, horsehair worms, and the corticep's fungus. In general, we're dealing with examples where the doomed host organism continues to behave as usual, sometimes even feeding, but also acting in a manner to benefit the parasite. Corticeps infected ants climb to a high point and release spores. Horsehair worm infected cricket seek out water to drown in, enabling the spawn inside them to burst free into their desired watery habitat and swim off in search of a mate. The growth of such parasites is amazing, consuming host tissues to the developing organism is almost as large as the host in some cases, converting according to Corris and Low, upwards of quote seventy percent of the host tissues into parasitoid biomass and up to ninety percent of its nitrogen, mostly to build parasitoid protein. In the twenty twelve article how the Alien xenomorph Works for HowStuffWorks, dot com I pointed to some grizzly natural world examples of this sort of thing, including the parasitic wasp cotessiaglomerata, which may pump up to sixty eggs into a single caterpillar, which may ultimately account for thirty percent of the host organism's body weight. The hatching larvae drink the host organism's fluids, but avoid vital organs. Other organisms, such as the Dinocampus cosinello wasp, seem to reprogram the host to protect the emergent larvae. And here's another interesting wrinkle to this. Parasitic wasp larvae seem to use a virus mimicking poison to shut down a host's immune system, allowing their growing spawn to develop inside the host unopposed. In a matter of hours, perhaps aided by the consumption of additional biomass and even metals, the xenomorph chest burster develops into a full grown adult, standing a good eight feet or two point four meters in height. Glistening and black, the bipedal xenomorph boasts a number of features that indeed make it worthy of the moniker perfect organism. It seems to benefit from a dual skeletal system, both indo and exo, as well as caustic blood that burns anything that might injure it. They're fast, They're stealthy. They attack with vicious claws, spiked tail, razor sharp teeth, and a secondary jaw that launches piston like to puncture prey, often compared to the phar angial jaws of the moraeel. Yet while the eel uses this adaptation to pull in prey, the xenomorph seems chiefly concerned with killing and subduing its prey, either for transformation into an ovomorph or in preparation for a xenomorph Queen's eggs. A loane An adult xenomorph betrays cunning and a fair amount of vicarious learning and problem solving, and within a hive context, they may benefit from emergent intelligence or some manner of hive mind. They have even been observed to exploit human technology, at least to a limited degree. To quote the android Ash, we are left with a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. It may constitute the ultimate creation of the Engineers, or that of the rogue android David. It may also be the true form of a creature that inspired the Engineers in their biotechnological p suits, still dominant in the dark reaches of the galaxy, or resurrected via the mad research of a demented, vengeful mind. We don't know, We may never know, and it seems entirely likely that we should never have left the Earth to begin with. That's it for the Alien Monster Facts series, but depending on what the new film Alien Romulus opening this weekend has to show us, I may be back for one more episode to discuss its monsters, so we'll see. Tune in for additional episodes of the Monster Fact the Artifact or Animalia Stupendium each week on Wednesdays. As always, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. Thus far in the Alien Monster Fact series, we've discussed everything from the mysterious engineers and their black goo, to the xenomorph egg and the face hugger that emerges from it. As we all know, the next phase in the alien life cycle is the violent eruption of the free living chest burster, which swiftly grows to become an adult xenomorph, sometimes referred to as a stage four xenomorph or simply a drone or warrior in science fiction. The Biology of the Alien in Alien by armand Im Kurus and Mona why Lau, published just last year in the Portland Press. The authors describe the xenomorph's parasitic development inside the host as lining up with natural world coinobiant parasitoids parasites that attack hosts that then continue feeding and growing during the parasitism. Because, of course, we see this in the original nineteen seventy nine film Alien, when Caine's face hugger falls away, he awakens and acts like his old self again. He chats and jokes with his crewmates. He enjoys a meal and prepares to carry on his ship duties, right before the creature inside him violently emerges. Couris and Low compared this to various parasitoid wasps, horsehair worms, and the corticep's fungus. In general, we're dealing with examples where the doomed host organism continues to behave as usual, sometimes even feeding, but also acting in a manner to benefit the parasite. Corticeps infected ants climb to a high point and release spores. Horsehair worm infected cricket seek out water to drown in, enabling the spawn inside them to burst free into their desired watery habitat and swim off in search of a mate. The growth of such parasites is amazing, consuming host tissues to the developing organism is almost as large as the host in some cases, converting according to Corris and Low, upwards of quote seventy percent of the host tissues into parasitoid biomass and up to ninety percent of its nitrogen, mostly to build parasitoid protein. In the twenty twelve article how the Alien xenomorph Works for HowStuffWorks, dot com I pointed to some grizzly natural world examples of this sort of thing, including the parasitic wasp cotessiaglomerata, which may pump up to sixty eggs into a single caterpillar, which may ultimately account for thirty percent of the host organism's body weight. The hatching larvae drink the host organism's fluids, but avoid vital organs. Other organisms, such as the Dinocampus cosinello wasp, seem to reprogram the host to protect the emergent larvae. And here's another interesting wrinkle to this. Parasitic wasp larvae seem to use a virus mimicking poison to shut down a host's immune system, allowing their growing spawn to develop inside the host unopposed. In a matter of hours, perhaps aided by the consumption of additional biomass and even metals, the xenomorph chest burster develops into a full grown adult, standing a good eight feet or two point four meters in height. Glistening and black, the bipedal xenomorph boasts a number of features that indeed make it worthy of the moniker perfect organism. It seems to benefit from a dual skeletal system, both indo and exo, as well as caustic blood that burns anything that might injure it. They're fast, They're stealthy. They attack with vicious claws, spiked tail, razor sharp teeth, and a secondary jaw that launches piston like to puncture prey, often compared to the phar angial jaws of the moraeel. Yet while the eel uses this adaptation to pull in prey, the xenomorph seems chiefly concerned with killing and subduing its prey, either for transformation into an ovomorph or in preparation for a xenomorph Queen's eggs. A loane An adult xenomorph betrays cunning and a fair amount of vicarious learning and problem solving, and within a hive context, they may benefit from emergent intelligence or some manner of hive mind. They have even been observed to exploit human technology, at least to a limited degree. To quote the android Ash, we are left with a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality. It may constitute the ultimate creation of the Engineers, or that of the rogue android David. It may also be the true form of a creature that inspired the Engineers in their biotechnological p suits, still dominant in the dark reaches of the galaxy, or resurrected via the mad research of a demented, vengeful mind. We don't know, We may never know, and it seems entirely likely that we should never have left the Earth to begin with. That's it for the Alien Monster Facts series, but depending on what the new film Alien Romulus opening this weekend has to show us, I may be back for one more episode to discuss its monsters, so we'll see. Tune in for additional episodes of the Monster Fact the Artifact or Animalia Stupendium each week on Wednesdays. As always, you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.