A Hard Pill to Swallow
2022; Oxford University Press; Volume: 68; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/ae/tmac063
ISSN2155-9902
Autores Tópico(s)Plant and Biological Electrophysiology Studies
ResumoI don’t belong to the target demographic for Rick and Morty, Cartoon Network’s animated sitcom that has aired during the network’s Adult Swim programming block for more than five seasons, which may explain why I find it so confusing. As far as I can discern, the show chronicles the intergalactic and interdimensional adventures of Rick Sanchez, a time-traveling alcoholic scientist, and his anxiety-ridden teenage grandson Morty. According to Nielsen ratings data, the show ranks #1 among millennials, ages 18–34 (Huddleston 2017). The show is notable for its occasional references to real science (Li 2019), so, unsurprisingly, my interest in the show is piqued whenever its real science involves arthropods. In Season 3, Episode 3, “It’s Pickle Rick,” for example, Rick turns himself into a pickle to avoid a family counseling session. Left alone at home by his family, the limbless Pickle Rick is knocked off a table and kicked outdoors by a cat, at which point a rainstorm washes him into a sewer. Unable to move, he lures a passing cockroach to approach him, bites off its head and, using his tongue, manipulates its brain to control its movements. The plot line is eerily reminiscent of the biology described in Martin et al. (2015), who successfully used recording wires to probe the neurons of the central complex in the brain of an ambulatory Blaberus discoidalis cockroach and were able to “produce movement in a consistent trajectory” (admittedly, with the use of wires rather than their tongues).
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