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“This vampire bat knows when you are sleeping, and it knows that you are you” … so begins one of my favourite recommendations on F1000 of the more gruesome papers. In it, Faculty Member Kent Berridge highlights research showing how vampire bats can recognize human breathing patterns well enough to keep coming back to feed on one individual over consecutive nights.

Creepy, right? But that’s just one of a number of sinister studies that have been recommended on F1000. Pharmacology Faculty Member David Triggle is particularly fond of highlighting zombie papers, for instance this “zombie plant” paper in which infection of Arabidopsis with the appropriately named “Yellow Witches Broom” bacterial pathogen causes the plant to alter its normal development and favour the production of witches broom shoots. In another paper, he even suggests “we need a new discipline – perhaps termed ‘Zombie Pharmacology.”

[pullquote]”Count Dracula maintained his vigor by drinking the blood of his victims – “the kiss of the vampire”. Perhaps he was on to something.” – David Triggle [/pullquote]

Maurice Sabelis too describes some seriously unsettling science – bat-eating great tits. According to Sabelis, when food is scarce “hungry great tits fly into caves, where they kill and eat hibernating bats.” And they aren’t the only birds to feed on blood – check out the ‘vampire finches’ mentioned within the study.

We want to hear from you – what are your favourite gruesome science papers? We have some swanky laser pointers and USB pens to give away – for a chance to win one, simply tweet @F1000 or Facebook us your favourite creepy research paper. This can be anything from nature’s zombies (e.g. toxoplasma gondii) to cannibalism, vampires to coulrophobia (fear of clowns). Tag your tweet/FB post with #gruesomesci. The competition will run through Halloween weekend, and winners will be chosen from our favourites on Monday 1st November.