A deep dive into the deep blue. Learn more about your favourite marine life every fortnight from your favourite marine biologist, Emily, and clueless but curious friend Shiv. Better yet find out the weird stuff that makes them even more fascinating!
This week is a continuation of the previous episode all about parasitic worms! Tiny creatures causing big problems.
On this episode we discuss nematodes (the round worms) and thorny headed worms.
Listen in to learn about how these squirming parasites have adapted to life on the inside and how one particular member can control its hosts behaviour but altering its brain chemistry!
2 Sept 2026
I'll have whatever intestinal parasite she's having!
Welcome to another episode of Curious Currents!
This week, we’re kicking off Part 1 of our parasitic worms series with the infamous tapeworm (because apparently, the ocean wasn’t horrifying enough already).
We’ll be getting into how these worms adapt to their hosts, including some fascinating (and unsettling) examples of how they make themselves at home in different anatomies.
Join us for a journey through attachment strategies, reproduction, and the deeply unfortunate fact that tapeworms are covered in tiny hairs. Get ready for the heebie-jeebies!
19 Aug 2026
Parasites: Crab Malware
What if something could get inside your body, change your behaviour, and make you care for its children as if they were your own?
Meet Sacculina carcini — a parasitic barnacle with a truly horrifying life cycle. In this episode of Curious Currents, we follow this tiny parasite from the moment it infects a crab, through its hidden life inside its host, to the bizarre reproductive structure that eventually emerges from the crab’s abdomen.
Sacculina doesn’t just feed on its host. It can stop moulting, alter reproduction, feminise male crabs, and manipulate their behaviour so they groom and care for the parasite’s brood.
But how does it actually do this?
We’ll explore what scientists know about parasite-induced behavioural manipulation — and the fascinating gaps in our understanding. Because Sacculina doesn’t need to take over the crab’s brain. It may simply need to interfere with the biological systems that make a crab behave like a crab.
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