Back when I was 106, and my only friend was one goldfish

[venta]

I just regaled ChrisC with a story about the lowly position of empiricists at the French court in the 17th or 18th century. The story goes like this:

All the finest minds of the era were busy debating why a bowl of water should become lighter when you put a goldfish into it. The debate was heated and wide-ranging. Until someone came along and said, er, actually, I don't think a bowl of water actually does get lighter when you add a goldfish. Look, I have here a bowl of water, a fish, and some scales.

His comments were immediately discounted because, well, who would be so low as to actually try the thing?

Which is a lovely story. But when I went a a-googling to try and find out whether I really meant the French court, and which century, and whether the man with the scales was someone whom history remembers...

Well, I can't find any evidence that I haven't just made the whole thing up. I'm sure I remember being told it in school. Has anyone else ever heard this story? If you heard it from me, it probably doesn't count.

Comments

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Hey, I've heard of toxoplasma gondii! I think of it as 'that awesome mind-controlling one. No, the one that does rats. Not the one that does flies. Or the one that does crabs (though that one is also well cool). Yes, the one that may be involved in schizophrenia. That awesome mind-controlling one.'

...I may, of course, not be a representative sample :)

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Maybe you aren't a represesentative sample, but you are not alone (I went straight for the mind control factoid as well. We're cat people, see....)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I have this awesome book about parasites :)

To be fair, it's probably the kind of book where people who actually know the subject go '...they said what? But that's a total lie! And nobody's believed this bit since the 50s! And this bit is just pure sensationalism...' but I liked it :)

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Yes it's that one! When I started my PhD in 2006 I was telling people that they'd do well to get Toxo, hence to acquire immunity to it, if they're female so that they won't get a primary infection during any future pregnancy. But since then it's become clear that this wouldn't be good advice. The psychiatric implications (as you mention) are now well documented. Also it's now clear that long-dormant Toxo can reactivate itself when the immune system is down, making it a risk for anybody who takes immunosuppressant drugs (eg for organ transplants) and also making it a frequent cause of death in AIDS. So it's not only females who need to be concerned. It's a big issue for sheep farmers, too, and that's what my PhD was about.

I'm well proud to have been sharing an office with the (then) fellow PhD student who first found a biochemical explanation for the behavioural effects. She's a good scientist.