Ohh, parasitology is fascinating! I highly recommend it for anyone who likes biology.

My absolute favorite are the tape worms like Taenia solium (pork tapeworm). It’s the type of worm that “ate” a portion of RFK’s brain. It wasn’t really a whole worm but it was probably an egg that he ate in undercooked meat that traveled up his body and calcified in his brain. As Rebecca Watson points out, it’s the leading cause of epilepsy worldwide.

Fun nerd facts: They have a spiky head that clings to the intestine and they absorb nutrients through their tegument (their skin). These fuckers are hermaphroditic with hundreds and hundreds of ovaries and testes within the same worm and the bodies are made of individual worm eggs that share a nervous system. That’s why they come apart so easily, because each segment is its own individual worm that can self-inseminate!