WASHINGTON (AP) – It’s no Nobel Peace Prize, but Barack Obama has a new honor 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 two-inch long creature after Obama.
Thomas Platt, the retired biology professor at Saint Mary’s College in Indiana who chose the name, says it’s an honor, not an insult. Really.
A distant relative of the president, Platt says people sometimes pay thousands of dollars for the privilege of having a species named after them.
Parasites get a bad rap. This one, Platt says, reminds him of the president: “It’s long. It’s thin. And it’s cool as hell.”