Relentless Inquiry

[August 2005 issue, “The Science of Things”, Mental Illness: Cat Carrier]

Mr Achenbach needs to temper his taste for entertaining alliteration and misleading mellifluosity. As he explains in the article, the possible link between toxoplasma gondii and schizophrenia is a danger to in-utero children, not to the already-born cat owner(s).

“Your cat could make you crazy”? Given the other common toxo sources mentioned, e.g. undercooked meat and contaminated water, the article could have been tagged “Your BBQ could make you batty” or “Water fountain could give you wacky-osis” for an equally unrepresentative portrayal of the risks of toxo-influenced mental illness.

I greatly appreciate the 'Science of Things' section of the Geographic, but the trend toward cat-chy phrrases has been blurring the intelligibility of the articles for some time now. As an avid ailurophile, I found this article to be the last whisker… err, straw. Let the science shine through and save the hyperbolic headlines for the Enquirer, please.

thanks kindly,
Strata Chalup