Jeff The Killer

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Jeff the Killer
Excerpt from a local Newspaper:

OMINOUS UNKNOWN
KILLER IS STILL
AT LARGE.

After weeks of unexplained murders, the ominous unknown killer is still on the rise. After little evidence has been found, a young boy states that he survived one of the killer's attacks and bravely tells his story.

"I had a bad dream and I woke up in the middle of the night," says the boy, "I saw that for some reason the window was open, even though I remember it being closed before I went to bed. I got up and shut it once more. Afterwards, I simply crawled under my covers and tried to get back to sleep. That's when I had a strange feeling, like someone was watching me. I looked up, and nearly jumped out of my bed. There, in the little ray of light, illuminating from between my curtains, were a pair of two eyes. These weren't regular eyes; they were dark, ominous eyes. They were bordered in black and... just plain out terrified me. That's when I saw his mouth. A long, horrendous smile that made every hair on my body stand up. The figure stood there, watching me. Finally, after what seemed like forever, he said it. A simple phrase, but said in a way only a mad man could speak.

"He said, 'Go To Sleep.' I let out a scream, that's what sent him at me. He pulled up a knife; aiming at my heart. He jumped on top of my bed. I fought him back; I kicked, I punched, I rolled around, trying to knock him off me. That's when my dad busted in. The man threw the knife, it went into my dad's shoulder. The man probably would've finished him off, if one of the neighbors hadn't alerted the police.

"They drove into the parking lot, and ran towards the door. The man turned and ran down the hallway. I heard a smash, like glass breaking. As I came out of my room, I saw the window that was pointing towards the back of my house was broken. I looked out it to see him vanish into the distance. I can tell you one thing, I will never forget that face. Those cold, evil eyes, and that psychotic smile. They will never leave my head."

Police are still on the look for this man. If you see anyone that fits the description in this story, please contact your local police department.

Jeff and his family had just moved into a new neighborhood. His dad had gotten a promotion at work, and they thought it would be best to live in one of those "fancy" neighborhoods. Jeff and his brother Liu couldn't complain though. A new, better house. What was not to love? As they were getting unpacked, one of their neighbors came by.

"Hello," she said, "I'm Barbara; I live across the street from you. Well, I just wanted to introduce my self and to introduce my son." She turns around and calls her son over. "Billy, these are our new neighbors." Billy said hi and ran back to play in his yard.

"Well," said Jeff's mom, "I'm Margaret, and this is my husband Peter, and my two sons, Jeff and Liu." They each introduced themselves, and then Barbara invited them to her son's birthday. Jeff and his brother were about to object, when their mother said that they would love to. When Jeff and his family are done packing, Jeff went up to his mom.

"Mom, why would you invite us to some kid's party? If you haven't noticed, I'm not some dumb kid."

"Jeff," said his mother, "We just moved here; we should show that we want to spend time with our neighbors. Now, we're going to that party, and that's final." Jeff started to talk, but stopped himself, knowing that he couldn't do anything. Whenever his mom said something, it was final. He walked up to his room and plopped down on his bed. He sat there looking at his ceiling when suddenly, he got a weird feeling. Not so much a pain, but... a weird feeling. He dismissed it as just some random feeling. He heard his mother call him down to get his stuff, and he walked down to get it.

The next day, Jeff walked down stairs to get breakfast and got ready for school. As he sat there, eating his breakfast, he once again got that feeling. This time it was stronger. It gave him a slight tugging pain, but he once again dismissed it. As he and Liu finished breakfast, they walked down to the bus stop. They sat there waiting for the bus, and then, all of a sudden, some kid on a skateboard jumped over them, only inches above their laps. They both jumped back in surprise. "Hey, what the hell?"

The kid landed and turned back to them. He kicked his skate board up and caught it with his hands. The kid seems to be about twelve; one year younger than Jeff. He wears a Aeropostale shirt and ripped blue jeans.

"Well, well, well. It looks like we got some new meat." Suddenly, two other kids appeared. One was super skinny and the other was huge. "Well, since you're new here, I'd like to introduce ourselves, over there is Keith." Jeff and Liu looked over to the skinny kid. He had a dopey face that you would expect a sidekick to have. "And he's Troy." They looked over at the fat kid. Talk about a tub of lard. This kid looked like he hadn't exercised since he was crawling.

"And I," said the first kid, "am Randy. Now, for all the kids in this neighborhood there is a small price for bus fare, if you catch my drift." Liu stood up, ready to punch the lights out of the kid's eyes when one of his friends pulled a knife on him. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, I had hoped you would be more cooperative, but it seems we must do this the hard way." The kid walked up to Liu and took his wallet out of his pocket. Jeff got that feeling again. Now, it was truly strong; a burning sensation. He stood up, but Liu gestured him to sit down. Jeff ignored him and walked up to the kid.

"Listen here you little punk, give back my bro's wallet or else." Randy put the wallet in his pocket and pulled out his own knife.

"Oh? And what will you do?" Just as he finished the sentence, Jeff popped the kid in the nose. As Randy reached for his face, Jeff grabbed the kid's wrist and broke it. Randy screamed and Jeff grabbed the knife from his hand. Troy and Keith rushed Jeff, but Jeff was too quick. He threw Randy to the ground. Keith lashed out at him, but Jeff ducked and stabbed him in the arm. Keith dropped his knife and fell to the ground screaming. Troy rushed him too, but Jeff didn't even need the knife. He just punched Troy straight in the stomach and Troy went down. As he fell, he puked all over. Liu could do nothing but look in amazement at Jeff.

"Jeff how'd you?" that was all he said. They saw the bus coming and knew they'd be blamed for the whole thing. So they started running as fast as they could. As they ran, they looked back and saw the bus driver rushing over to Randy and the others. As Jeff and Liu made it to school, they didn't dare tell what happened. All they did was sit and listen. Liu just thought of that as his brother beating up a few kids, but Jeff knew it was more. It was something, scary. As he got that feeling he felt how powerful it was, the urge to just, hurt someone. He didn't like how it sounded, but he couldn't help feeling happy. He felt that strange feeling go away, and stay away for the entire day of school. Even as he walked home due to the whole thing near the bus stop, and how now he probably wouldn't be taking the bus anymore, he felt happy. When he got home his parents asked him how his day was, and he said, in a somewhat ominous voice, "It was a wonderful day." Next morning, he heard a knock at his front door. He walked down to find two police officers at the door, his mother looking back at him with an angry look.

"Jeff, these officers tell me that you attacked three kids. That it wasn't regular fighting, and that they were stabbed. Stabbed, son!" Jeff's gaze fell to the floor, showing his mother that it was true.

"Mom, they were the ones who pulled the knives on me and Liu."

"Son," said one of the cops," We found three kids, two stabbed, one having a bruise on his stomach, and we have witnesses proving that you fled the scene. Now, what does that tell us?" Jeff knew it was no use. He could say him and Liu had been attacked, but then there was no proof it was not them who attacked first. They couldn't say that they weren't fleeing, because truth be told they were. So Jeff couldn't defend himself or Liu.

"Son, call down your brother." Jeff couldn't do it, since it was him who beat up all the kids.

"Sir, it...it was me. I was the one who beat up the kids. Liu tried to hold me back, but he couldn't stop me." The cop looked at his partner and they both nod.

"Well kid, looks like a year in Juvy..."

"Wait!" says Liu. They all looked up to see him holding a knife. The officers pulled their guns and locked them on Liu.

"It was me, I beat up those little punks. Have the marks to prove it." He lifted up his sleeves to reveal cuts and bruises, as if he was in a struggle.

"Son, just put the knife down," said the officer. Liu held up the knife and dropped it to the ground. He put his hands up and walked over to the cops.

"No Liu, it was me! I did it!" Jeff had tears running down his face.

"Huh, poor bro. Trying to take the blame for what I did. Well, take me away." The police led Liu out to the patrol car.

"Liu, tell them it was me! Tell them! I was the one who beat up those kids!" Jeff's mother put her hands on his shoulders.

"Jeff please, you don't have to lie. We know it's Liu, you can stop." Jeff watched helplessly as the cop car speeds off with Liu inside. A few minutes later Jeff's dad pulled into the driveway, seeing Jeff's face and knowing something was wrong.

"Son, son what is it?" Jeff couldn't answer. His vocal cords were strained from crying. Instead, Jeff's mother walked his father inside to break the bad news to him as Jeff wept in the driveway. After an hour or so Jeff walked back in to the house, seeing that his parents were both shocked, sad, and disappointed. He couldn't look at them. He couldn't see how they thought of Liu when it was his fault. He just went to sleep, trying to get the whole thing off his mind. Two days went by, with no word from Liu at JDC. No friends to hang out with. Nothing but sadness and guilt. That is until Saturday, when Jeff is woke up by his mother, with a happy, sunshiny face.

"Jeff, it's the day." she said as she opened up the curtains and let light flood into his room.

"What, what's today?" asked Jeff as he stirs awake.

"Why, it's Billy's party." He was now fully awake.

"Mom, you're joking, right? You don't expect me to go to some kid's party after..." There was a long pause.

"Jeff, we both know what happened. I think this party could be the thing that brightens up the past days. Now, get dressed." Jeff's mother walked out of the room and downstairs to get ready herself. He fought himself to get up. He picked out a random shirt and pair of jeans and walked down stairs. He saw his mother and father all dressed up; his mother in a dress and his father in a suit. He thought, why they would ever wear such fancy clothes to a kid's party?

"Son, is that all your going to wear?" said Jeff's mom.

"Better than wearing too much." he said. His mother pushed down the feeling to yell at him and hid it with a smile.

"Now Jeff, we may be over-dressed, but this is how you go if you want to make an impression." said his father. Jeff grunted and went back up to his room.

"I don't have any fancy clothes!" he yelled down stairs.

"Just pick out something." called his mother. He looked around in his closet for what he would call fancy. He found a pair of black dress pants he had for special occasions and an undershirt. He couldn't find a shirt to go with it though. He looked around, and found only striped and patterned shirts. None of which go with dress pants. Finally he found a white hoodie and put it on.

"You're wearing that?" they both said. His mother looked at her watch. "Oh, no time to change. Let's just go." She said as she herded Jeff and his father out the door. They crossed the street over to Barbara and Billy's house. They knocked on the door and at it appeared that Barbara, just like his parents, way over-dressed. As they walked inside all Jeff could see were adults, no kids.

"The kids are out in the yard. Jeff, how about you go and meet some of them?" said Barbara.

Jeff walked outside to a yard full of kids. They were running around in weird cowboy costumes and shooting each other with plastic guns. He might as well be standing in a Toys R Us. Suddenly a kid came up to him and handed him a toy gun and hat.

"Hey. Wanna pway?" he said.

"Ah, no kid. I'm way too old for this stuff." The kid looked at him with that weird puppydog face.

"Pwease?" said the kid. "Fine," said Jeff. He put on the hat and started to pretend shoot at the kids. At first he thought it was totally ridiculous, but then he started to actually have fun. It might not have been super cool, but it was the first time he had done something that took his mind off of Liu. So he played with the kids for a while, until he heard a noise. A weird rolling noise. Then it hit him. Randy, Troy, and Keith all jumped over the fence on their skateboards. Jeff dropped the fake gun and ripped off the hat. Randy looked at Jeff with a burning hatred.

"Hello, Jeff, is it?" he said. "We have some unfinished business." Jeff saw his bruised nose." I think we're even. I beat the crap out of you, and you get my brother sent to JDC."

Randy got an angry look in his eyes. "Oh no, I don't go for even, I go for winning. You may have kicked our asses that one day, but not today." As he said that Randy rushed at Jeff. They both fell to the ground. Randy punched Jeff in the nose, and Jeff grabbed him by the ears and head butted him. Jeff pushed Randy off of him and both rose to their feet. Kids were screaming and parents were running out of the house. Troy and Keith both pulled guns out of their pockets.

"No one interrupts or guts will fly!" they said. Randy pulled a knife on Jeff and stabbed it into his shoulder.

Jeff screamed and fell to his knees. Randy started kicking him in the face. After three kicks Jeff grabs his foot and twists it, causing Randy to fall to the ground. Jeff stood up and walked towards the back door. Troy grabbed him.

"Need some help?" He picks Jeff up by the back of the collar and throws him through the patio door. As Jeff tries to stand he is kicked down to the ground. Randy repeatedly starts kicking Jeff, until he starts to cough up blood.

"Come on Jeff, fight me!" He picks Jeff up and throws him into the kitchen. Randy sees a bottle of vodka on the counter and smashes the glass over Jeff's head.

"Fight!" He throws Jeff back into the living room.

"Come on Jeff, look at me!" Jeff glances up, his face riddled with blood. "I was the one who got your brother sent to JDC! And now you're just gonna sit here and let him rot in there for a whole year! You should be ashamed!" Jeff starts to get up.

"Oh, finally! you stand and fight!" Jeff is now to his feet, blood and vodka on his face. Once again he gets that strange feeling, the one in which he hasn't felt for a while. "Finally. He's up!" says Randy as he runs at Jeff. That's when it happens. Something inside Jeff snaps. His psyche is destroyed, all rational thinking is gone, all he can do, is kill. He grabs Randy and pile drives him to the ground. He gets on top of him and punches him straight in the heart. The punch causes Randy's heart to stop. As Randy gasps for breath. Jeff hammers down on him. Punch after punch, blood gushes from Randy's body, until he takes one final breath, and dies.

Everyone is looking at Jeff now. The parents, the crying kids, even Troy and Keith. Although they easily break from their gaze and point their guns at Jeff. Jeff see's the guns trained on him and runs for the stairs. As he runs Troy and Keith let out fire on him, each shot missing. Jeff runs up the stairs. He hears Troy and Keith follow up behind. As they let out their final rounds of bullets Jeff ducks into the bathroom. He grabs the towel rack and rips it off the wall. Troy and Keith race in, knives ready.

Troy swings his knife at Jeff, who backs away and bangs the towel rack into Troy's face. Troy goes down hard and now all that's left is Keith. He is more agile than Troy though, and ducks when Jeff swings the towel rack. He dropped the knife and grabbed Jeff by the neck. He pushed him into the wall. A thing of bleach fell down on top of him from the top shelf. It burnt both of them and they both started to scream. Jeff wiped his eyes as best as he could. He pulled back the towel rack and swung it straight into Keith's head. As he lay there, bleeding to death, he let out an ominous smile.

"What's so funny?" asked Jeff. Keith pulled out a lighter and switched it on. "What's funny," he said, "Is that you're covered in bleach and alcohol." Jeff's eyes widened as Keith threw the lighter at him. As soon as the flame made contact with him, the flames ignited the alcohol in the vodka. While the alcohol burned him, the bleach bleached his skin. Jeff let out a terrible screech as he caught on fire. He tried to roll out the fire but it was no use, the alcohol had made him a walking inferno. He ran down the hall, and fell down the stairs. Everybody started screaming as they saw Jeff, now a man on fire, drop to the ground, nearly dead. The last thing Jeff saw was his mother and the other parents trying to extinguish the flame. That's when he passed out.

When Jeff woke he had a cast wrapped around his face. He couldn't see anything, but he felt a cast on his shoulder, and stitches all over his body. He tried to stand up, but he realized that there was some tube in his arm, and when he tried to get up it fell out, and a nurse rushed in.

"I don't think you can get out of bed just yet." she said as she put him back in his bed and re-inserted the tube. Jeff sat there, with no vision, no idea of what his surroundings were. Finally, after hours, he heard his mother.

"Honey, are you okay?" she asked. Jeff couldn't answer though, his face was covered, and he was unable to speak. "Oh honey, I have great news. After all the witnesses told the police that Randy confessed of trying to attack you, they decided to let Liu go." This made Jeff almost bolt up, stopping halfway, remembering the tube coming out of his arm. "He'll be out by tomorrow, and then you two will be able to be together again."

Jeff's mother hugs Jeff and says her goodbyes. The next couple of weeks were those where Jeff was visited by his family. Then came the day where his bandages were to be removed. His family were all there to see it, what he would look like. As the doctors unwrapped the bandages from Jeff's face everyone was on the edge of their seats. They waited until the last bandage holding the cover over his face was almost removed.

"Let's hope for the best," said the doctor. He quickly pulls the cloth; letting the rest fall from Jeff's face.

Jeff's mother screams at the sight of his face. Liu and Jeff's dad stare awe-struck at his face.

"What? What happened to my face?" Jeff said. He rushed out of bed and ran to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror and saw the cause of the distress. His face. It... it's horrible. His lips were burnt to a deep shade of red. His face was turned into a pure white color, and his hair singed from brown to black. He slowly put his hand to his face. It had a sort of leathery feel to it now. He looked back at his family then back at the mirror.

"Jeff," said Liu, "It's not that bad..."

"Not that bad?" said Jeff," It's perfect!" His family were equally surprised. Jeff started laughing uncontrollably His parents noticed that his left eye and hand were twitching.

"Uh... Jeff, are you okay?"

"Okay? I've never felt more happy! Ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa, look at me. This face goes perfectly with me!" He couldn't stop laughing. He stroked his face feeling it. Looking at it in the mirror. What caused this? Well, you may recall that when Jeff was fighting Randy something in his mind, his sanity, snapped. Now he was left as a crazy killing machine, that is, his parents didn't know.

"Doctor," said Jeff's mom, "Is my son... alright, you know. In the head?"

"Oh yes, this behavior is typical for patients that have taken very large amounts of pain killers. If his behavior doesn't change in a few weeks, bring him back here, and we'll give him a psychological test."

"Oh thank you doctor." Jeff's mother went over to Jeff." Jeff, sweety. It's time to go."

Jeff looks away from the mirror, his face still formed into a crazy smile. "Kay mommy, ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaa!" his mother took him by the shoulder and took him to get his clothes.

"This is what came in," said the lady at the desk. Jeff's mom looked down to see the black dress pants and white hoodie her son wore. Now they were clean of blood and now stitched together. Jeff's mother led him to his room and made him put his clothes on. Then they left, not knowing that this was their final day of life.

Later that night, Jeff's mother woke to a sound coming from the bathroom. It sounded as if someone was crying. She slowly walked over to see what it was. When she looked into the bathroom she saw a horrendous sight. Jeff had taken a knife and carved a smile into his cheeks.

"Jeff, what are you doing?" asked his mother.

Jeff looked over to his mother. "I couldn't keep smiling mommy. It hurt after awhile. Now, I can smile forever. Jeff's mother noticed his eyes, ringed in black.

"Jeff, your eyes!" His eyes were seemingly never closing.

"I couldn't see my face. I got tired and my eyes started to close. I burned out the eyelids so I could forever see myself; my new face." Jeff's mother slowly started to back away, seeing that her son was going insane. "What's wrong mommy? Aren't I beautiful?

"Yes son," she said, "Yes you are. L-let me go get daddy, so he can see your face." She ran into the room and shook Jeff's dad from his sleep. "Honey, get the gun we..." She stopped as she saw Jeff in the doorway, holding a knife.

"Mommy, you lied." That's the last thing they hear as Jeff rushes them with the knife, gutting both of them.

His brother Liu woke up, startled by some noise. He didn't hear anything else, so he just shut his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. As he was on the border of slumber, he got the strangest feeling that someone was watching him. He looked up, before Jeff's hand covered his mouth. He slowly raised the knife ready to plunge it into Liu. Liu thrashed here and there trying to escape Jeff's grip.

"Shhhhhhh," Jeff said. "Just go to sleep."

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"This face... It has never left my head ever since.. Ever since 2016. First time seeing the picture, drove me to pure insanity."

- Victim of Killer

"I hate how pepl make him hot"

- Victim of Killer

"Omg this is so scary guys like for real just super scared I don’t know why they did this but oh I lash I hate like the stories I hate them but I don’t need them because I want to get nightmares yeah"

- Victim of Killer

I throw my blood knife. I pick up a ant. I eat the ant. I cry. I sob. I wail. I bawl. I guffaw. I weep. I mourn. I howl. I snivel. I whimper. I whine. I squall. I mewl. I call. I shout. I exclaim. I yell. I shriek. I scream. I screech. I bellow. I roar. I whoop. I yowl. I squeal. I yelp. I yalp. I holler. I throw up the ant. I revive the ant. I rejoice. I say "yipee!"

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Ants have an exceptionally high-def sense of smell
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Fighting ants
Fighting among different colonies is one of the complex behaviors that ants exhibit. Here, a Rhytidoponera victoriae scout, left, has discovered an Stigmatomma ferruginea worker and attempts to wrestle it back to her nest. (Copyright alexanderwild.com)
Ants have four to five times more odor receptors than most other insects, a team of researchers has discovered.

The research team, led by Lawrence Zwiebel at Vanderbilt, recently completed the first first full map of olfactory system that provides ants with their sense of taste and smell. They found the industrious insects have genes that make about 400 distinct odorant receptors, special proteins that detect different odors. By comparison, silk moths have 52, fruit flies have 61, mosquitoes range from 74 to 158 and the honeybee has 174.

“The most exciting moment for me was when the analysis came back showing that we had identified more than 400 OR genes, the largest number of any known insect species,” said Xiaofan Zhou, the research associate who headed up the characterization process. “It meant that we had successfully taken the first step toward gaining a new level of understanding of the complex social system that has made ants one of the most successful families on the planet.”

Laurence Zwiebel
Professor Laurence Zwiebel (Steve Green/Vanderbilt)
People have long been intrigued and inspired by ants’ ability to form highly organized colonies with division of labor, communication between individuals and ability to solve complex problems. For some time, scientists have also known that chemical communication plays an important role in ant behavior. “So it’s a reasonable supposition that this dramatic expansion in odor-sensing capability is what allowed ants to develop such a high level of social organization,” said Laurence Zwiebel, professor of biological sciences, who directed the new study that was published in the Aug. 30 issue of the journal PLoS Genetics.

Zwiebel’s team characterized the olfactory systems of two distinctly different ant species as part of an interdisciplinary project titled “Epigenetics of Behavior, Longevity and Social Organization in Ants,” headed by Danny Reinberg of New York University and funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. In 2010, the project sequenced the genomes of the two species – the Florida carpenter ant (Camponotus floridanus) and the Indian jumping ant (Harpegnathos saltator) – for the first time. This effort set the stage to make the detailed olfactory study possible.

Florida carpenter ant
Florida carpenter ant (Copyright alexanderwild.com)
The olfactory system of most insects is centered in their antennae and is broadly made up of three different classes of receptors: odorant receptors (ORs), that identify different aromatic compounds and pheromones; gustatory receptors (GRs), that distinguish between different tastes and react to some pheromones; and newly discovered ionotropic glutamate receptors (IRs), that are narrowly tuned to various poisonous and toxic compounds. The study found that the primary expansion in the ant’s olfactory system is focused on ORs. The number of GRs and IRs are comparable to those found in other insects.

The initial automated analysis of the two ant genomes found only about 100 genes for ORs and ten GRs. “We knew these numbers were low because olfactory receptors are very difficult to identify,” Zhou said. So he and his colleagues designed a novel automated bioinformatic process for this purpose, combined with extensive manual evaluation.

Indian jumping ant
Indian jumping ant (Copyright alexanderwild.com)
The researchers also compared both the identity and expression levels of ORs in the two species and found significant differences. This wasn’t surprising because the two species were selected to reflect the high level of diversity that exists within the ant family. Carpenter ants live in large colonies with long-lived queens that produce all the fertilized eggs. There are two castes of sterile workers. When the queen dies so does the colony. Jumping ants, by contrast, live in small groups, the difference between the queen and workers islimited, and some workers can mate and lay fertilized eggs. “The differences in receptors are most probably associated with the difference in lifestyles of the two species,” Zhou said.

Similarly, their analysis found important differences in the ORs in the antennae of males and females. Overall, they found that the males have only one third the number of ORs that the females express. “The primary role of males is fertilization of eggs, so we assume that the ORs that males express and that females don’t are probably tuned to pheromones produced by the queen,” Zhou said.

Jumping ant antenna
Scanning electron microscope image of one of the antennae of a female Indian jumping ant. (Courtesy of Anandasankar Ray)
The team also took the initial steps in identifying the chemical signals that set off specific ORs. Research Associate Jesse Slone adapted an assay that the group initially developed for matching ORs with chemical signals in the malaria mosquito. The assay involves inserting the gene for a receptor into frog eggs so that the receptors are expressed on the egg’s surface. By wiring the eggs and then exposing them to different chemical compounds, the eggs produce a measurable electric signal when the receptor is activated.

Slone used this assay to identify the compounds that trigger one OR on each of the ant species. He found that an aromatic compound found in anise triggered the OR from the jumping ant that he tested. The receptors were found in both males and workers. Since studies have shown that anise oil has a repellant and/or insecticidal effect on some species of insects, the compound may be a general insect repellent that this OR is designed to detect, Slone speculates.

By comparison, the OR from the carpenter ant turned out to react to a naturally occurring odorant found in cooked beef and pork. The scientists have no idea why this compound is relevant to the ants, but they did establish that the specific receptor is enhanced in workers, relative to males.

“This is just the beginning. But we have demonstrated that we have the basic tools we need to act as ‘OR detectives’ to map the ants ‘odor space’ and identify the chemical signals that trigger specific behaviors in the ant’s extensive repertoire,” Slone said.

Slone and Zhou
Research assistants Jesse Slone, left, and Ziaofan Zhou (John Russell/Vanderbilt)
This represents the opening of a major new research avenue for the Zwiebel Lab, which has been focused on pioneering work deconstructing the olfactory system of the malaria mosquito. “When I was in graduate school, a group of us dreamed about deciphering the role that genes might play in ant social behavior. So I couldn’t pass up this opportunity when it came along. It’s taken 30 years but we’ve finally gotten to the point where we can actually do these studies.”

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Antonis Rokis, Professor Shelley Berger at the University of Pennsylvania, Assistant Professor Jürgen Liebig at Arizona State University, Assistant ProfessorAnandasankar Ray at the University of California, Riverside and Professor Danny Reinberg at New York University also contributed to the study, which was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

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I appoint the ant as my Knight.

The ant fights a gorilla and wins. The ant fights a car and wins. The ant fights a wrestler and wins. The ant feasts upon some morsels and grows stronger. My ant is invincible.

I get hit by a car. I get up. I find my car. I get in my car. I drive my car. My ant gets in the car. I drive the ant to ant school. The ant gets out. I smoke a Blood Cigar. The ant learns. The ant learns. The ant learns. The ant learns. The ant learns. The ant learns. The ant learns. The ant leaves school. The ant gets into my car. I drive the ant home. I drop the ant off. I scream. I throw my Blood Knife into the sky.

The Blood Knife lands in my head. I pull my Blood Knife out of my Head. I bleed. I bleed. I stuff a bandage into my head. I gain 35exp. I level up. I select the "Killer's Crafting" perk. I craft Ant Armor for my ant. I scream. I craft Bug Water for my ant. I craft Blood. I dismantle my car for Screws and Metal. I place a Drawer on a wall. I gain 2exp.

I listen to "The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

I continue listening to "The Impression That I Get" by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

BEN Drowned is better.

WANNA EAT OATMEAL TOGETHER MR KILLER

are.... are you ok?

you are just as perfect as the day I made you..im tearing up dear jefe..

Dreaming Mado wrote:

Jeff The Killer wrote:

"This face...  It has never left my head ever since..  Ever since 2016.  First time seeing the picture, drove me to pure insanity."

- Victim of Killer

Isn't that the future? Have you invented time travel, Jeff? Can you tell me your secrets?

do not question the killers tale..

LethalSweety wrote:

you are just as perfect as the day I made you..im tearing up dear jefe..

WRONG! HE'S JUST AS PERFECT
LY BAD AS THE DAY I MADE HIM! KIKIKI!

this thread sucks ass

YOU suck ass! I'm going to be boiling you in oil soon! Kikiki!

you cant boil me in oil im allergic to dying

I'm boiling you, i'm frying you, i'm battering you and serving you with mayonnaise, i'm simmering you in a sauce, so many ways to serve a shrimp, even a devillish one... hehehe...

youve got a world of hurt coming for you pal