Barack Obama is officially now a parasite (it’s an honour)
WASHINGTON — It’s no Nobel Peace Prize, but Barack Obama has a new honour to brag about. Scientists have named a parasite after him — and there’s no worming out of it.
Meet Baracktrema obamai, a tiny parasitic flatworm that lives in turtles’ blood. A new study officially names the 2-inch, hair-thin creature after Obama.
Thomas Platt, the newly retired biology professor at Saint Mary’s College in Indiana who chose the name, says it’s an honour, not an insult. Really.
Platt, who discovered and named the flatworm to crown his career before retiring, has more than 30 new species to his credit. In the past, he’s named them after his father-in-law, his doctorate adviser “and other people I have a great deal of respect for. This is clearly something in my small way done to honour our president,” Platt said Thursday.