*Speaking of humans with viruses for brains, what the heck gives with a mollusc that can photosynthesize? No, it doesn't have algae on board, it IS a freaking algae plant.
https://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/green-sea-slug/
"SEATTLE — It’s easy being green for a sea slug that has stolen enough genes to become the first animal shown to make chlorophyll like a plant.
"Shaped like a leaf itself, the slug Elysia chlorotica already has a reputation for kidnapping the photosynthesizing organelles and some genes from algae. Now it turns out that the slug has acquired enough stolen goods to make an entire plant chemical-making pathway work inside an animal body, says Sidney K. Pierce of the University of South Florida in Tampa.
"The slugs can manufacture the most common form of chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants that captures energy from sunlight, Pierce reported January 7 at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Pierce used a radioactive tracer to show that the slugs were making the pigment, called chlorophyll a, themselves and not simply relying on chlorophyll reserves stolen from the algae the slugs dine on.
“This could be a fusion of a plant and an animal — that’s just cool,” said invertebrate zoologist John Zardus of The Citadel in Charleston, S.C.
"Microbes swap genes readily, but Zardus said he couldn’t think of another natural example of genes flowing between multicellular kingdoms...."
(((Okay, now get this. They puree this slug and they get you the algae genes and the organelles. Now you, too can turn green and photosynthesize. You can move to a tropical island, lie in the sun for a living and never pay for food and shelter again in your life.)))
(((Do you go for it? How about if they also offer to remove your eight percent viral genes?)))
