Science is Gross

I've written about the misery of majoring in biology here before so you already know that science is gross.  I have more grossness to share.

Did you know that your face has mites on it called face mites?  They are tiny arachnids, like ticks or spiders, and they live in the hair follicles on your face.  They eat the sebum in the follicle and at night they come out of your follicles to mate.  The freaks come out at night, if you will.  So yeah, you have bugs making wonderful sweet sweet love on your face but don't worry, they don't have an anus so they don't poop on you.  Don't take my word for it, here's a video featuring Michelle Trautwein, an entomologist who studies face mites.  Next time you think your job is bad or stupid, just remember that Dr. Trautwein does this (probably using your tax dollars).

Also gross: the New York Times, the paper of record, recently ran a story about how macaques use stones to pleasure themselves.  You won't get this monkey porn in the New York Post--they better not let my kids have access to the Times in school!  Yet another reason to avoid macaques.

More grossness from the Gray Lady: Robert Hancock, a biologist at Metropolitan State University of Denver, discovered that the larvae of Toxorhynchites amboinensis, a species of mosquito, shoot their heads forwards to capture their prey.  Kind of like a moray eel only with the whole head.

They have GIFs in the article if you want to see it in action.  Or if you want further justification to major in art history.