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HBO's new dramatic dramatic series The last of us has become a cocorum show of water on the strength of his narration - he depicts a declining society after an infectious mushroom began to transform people into zombies. But experts say that the show can deserve to become an article of conversation for another reason: this mushroom of control of the mind really exists.

NPR reports that Unilateralis Ophiocordyce , also known as Cordycers or "Zombie-An-Announced mushroom", is capable of infecting insects, emptying the host body entirely nutrients and filling it with spores which allow the fungus to reproduce. It also forces the bug assigned to disseminate the infection to others. But nothing for humans to worry. LAW? Read the rest to discover what experts say.

Just one of the many mental control mushrooms

Bryn Dentourger, professor of biology at the University of Utah and mycology curator at the Natural History Museum of Utah, told NPR that the fungus is one of the best known organizations with a mental control capacity. Experts do not know why it happens, but there are theories.

"There seems to be a combination of physical manipulation of muscle fibers, for example, possibly growth in the brain itself, which can have an impact on its behavior," he said. "But there is also most likely a kind of chemical attack on the host, either small molecules, or proteins or other things, which end up manipulating the behavior of the brain."

Some crucial differences between science fiction and reality

Dentourger told NPR that there were some differences between cordycers and the fungus described in the show. Cordyceps is not infected with the mouth and the infected are not connected to each other via a network. Fortunately, the fungus cannot infect humans.

"Our body temperatures are high enough for most organisms, their proteins would distort this temperature and therefore they cannot survive in our body," said Dentinger. But that does not mean that there is no cause of concern.

Will global warming make the mushrooms stronger control stronger?

Dentourger has told NPR that certain types of fungi can withstand higher temperatures and are therefore capable of infecting humans. And climate change allows certain fungi to withstand higher temperatures. It is therefore possible that one day, a fungus of control of the spirit which can infect humans will not only be science fiction.

"This is perhaps one of the reasons why we see more fungal infections in human humans, but again, to date, none of them is cordycers," he said . "However, it may happen in the future, but for the moment, this is not a possibility."

A fungus that infects the fly of the common house

If the perspective looks like a fairly horrible scenario, you are right. In November 2021, Living science reported on Entomophthora Muscae , a fungus that infects the fly of the common house. He infects and controls the spirit of the flies, before consuming them from the inside.

Not only are flies forced to move to high altitudes with tense wings, thus more easily repairing infectious spores, but infected females are also transformed into "zombie flies" and emit a chemical that induces men Mat with their corpses, to infected themselves.

A fungus in a fungus

And last November, CNN reportedly reported On the behavior of Ophiocordycepts, which contains dozens of strains, because it affects ants: "The organism diverts the body and brain from its host of Ant, controlling it in the mind by abandoning its nest and climbing on a nearby tree," said the media. AE0FCC31AE342FD3A1346EBB1F342FCB

"There, the infected ant tights its jaws around a sheet, during above the forest floor, and dies in a few days while the mushroom digests it. Daily in the body of its host, the mushroom then sends a Spore shower to infect the next generation of ants. " It turns out that the fungus is infected with a clean fungus, which, according to scientists, maintains the production of zombies on the move.