The fungus zombies in The Last of Us are fictional, but real fungi can infect people, and they're becoming more resistantThere is a grain of truth in their yarn. Cordyceps infects mostly insects, taking control of their actions and causing them to help the fungus complete its reproductive cycle - finally sprouting through the body of the insect. Don't click the link unless you have a strong stomach.
Published: February 24, 2023 8.32am AEDT
Gerry Wright
Professor of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, McMaster University
Many of the people watching The Last of Us are likely there for the zombies.
I love the zombies too, but I'm really there for the fungus.
I've been studying fungi since my PhD work in the 1980s, and I grow more fascinated by these amazing organisms with every passing year.
In the HBO series and the video game that inspired it, a parasitic fungus โ a fictitious mutation of the very real cordyceps โ jumps from insects to humans and quickly spreads around the world, rendering its victims helpless to control their thoughts and actions. Far-fetched fungal fear-mongering? It's definitely fictional, but maybe not as preposterous as it might seem.
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Read more: https://theconversation.com/the-fungus-zombies-in-the-last-of-us-are-fictional-but-real-fungi-can-infect-people-and-theyre-becoming-more-resistant-200224
So what caused these Cordyceps to start infecting people? The opening scene of the first episode explains Cordyceps developed the ability to attack humans, because global warming helped the fungus to adapt to our body heat.
And then - no more global warming references. At least so far. The characters in the story have bigger problems. Just a fast moving horror film, entertaining junk food for the brain.
I'm going to keep watching. Lets hope I don't regret my recommendation.
Reader Comments
The humans become sicker and weaker.
The nowadays common candida albicans overgrowth is another example. With bad nutrition and an unhealthy life style, humans create the conditions for fungi and bacteria to grow in a seemingly uncontrolled manner. Or dare I say "terrain" ... ? I very early realized that movie plots are totally arbitrary. They follow the producer's ideology, and not reality.
Very little Suspension Of Disbelieve anymore for me. From 10 movies I tried to watch the last few years, I could not finish 8. Either out of boredom or disgust.
They only talked about the possibility of global warming helping fungi to evolve to survive body temperature.
Thus the whole shebang was a drug-induced hallucination ...
If the vax contains self-organizing graphene quantum dots, and these can organize and interface to parts of the brain, then zombification could occur through 5G or other electromagnetic energy? Then it will be the zombo-fungus jumped from the ants to the people.
I caught up on the last 3 years of the Cassiopean transmissions (us in the future). And thats exactly what they say re the jab and virus, that it creates a zombification/upgrade of the human biome, and not for the good of the host but for the good of the 'predator' !!
Last year we bought a new home in Kelowna. And get this the bottom floor of the walk out rancher has 8 windows covered in expensive steel shudders (10-15k add on), and when we saw that we went WTF, a zombie proof home. We will take it !!! ha ha TRUE STORY !