Image: HBO.com
Unless you really took the TV out of the house and disconnected from the Internet (how do you read that, huh?), there’s no way you’ve avoided talking about the show The Last Of Us (or “the last of us”) that managed to become one of HBO’s biggest hits in recent weeks.
The series, which is based on the highly successful computer game of the same name, presents us with a scenario where a mysterious epidemic manages to almost wipe out humanity and turn most of it into murderous zombies eaten by fungi. But while you may be watching TLOU with pleasure (well, less with pleasure and more with tears at the end of each episode) and thinking that this is another completely fictional scenario – you should know that an epidemic from the game and the series is based on a completely real and completely disgusting fungus. Meet Ophiocordyspasm, the parasitic fungus that will make you lose a few hours of sleep, and maybe make you want to eat your next Spaghetti Fungi.
is that an ant It’s not a mushroom disguised as an ant
The most famous Ophiocordyceps, or in its full Latin name, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, was first discovered by Alfred Russel Wallace, one of the fathers of the theory of evolution, back in 1859. As soon as spores of the parasitic fungus land on an ant, the cells of the fungus penetrate and spread to all parts of its body, including its head and muscles, in a kind of tangled web, which allows the fungus to actually control all of the ant’s actions. In a recent study it was revealed that despite controlling all the organs of the poor creature, the fungus actually gives up the mind of the unfortunate ant, and controls the behavior of its body through various chemicals. The reason it doesn’t take over the ant’s mind, other than the reluctance to kill it (or rather, Not yet kill her), is to control the ant, among other things, through it.
At the same time as this process, the fungus has to broadcast business as usual so as not to reveal the fact that the ant is now a zombie-ant. “Ants are social animals,” explains Dr. Noam Levitan, a biologist from the Davidson Institute for Science Education. “If they notice too early that there is a sick ant, it will leave the nest, and they will remove it so that it does not get infected.” A few days after the infection and spread, the ant, which according to Leviathan is already a fungus in the guise of an ant, suddenly leaves the nest for a walk. She will never return from this trip, and in the end she may also contribute to the elimination of the rest of her friends in the nest against her will.
During this trip, the zombie-ant is sent against its will to climb high on trees and leaves in search of ideal conditions, and at the moment of truth, the ant gives a “death bite”, to a leaf or tree, which fixes it to the place, and here the unfortunate ant ends its days of suffering. But that’s not even the most disgusting part of the story. After the ant’s death, the fungus grows a fruiting body directly from the ant’s head. The appearance is similar to a long and repulsive antenna, which eventually spreads more spores, which will try to land on other ants and infect them, God forbid. what? Do you want to see it? Why didn’t you say before?
Want another angle? you are welcome
Specifically, the second video, taken from the iconic show Planet Earth, is the one that inspired Neil Druckman and the rest of the Naughty Dog and The Last Of Us team to present a world where Ophiocordyspas jumps right into humans, and takes over their actions. So we did the right thing and asked Leviathan if there was even the slightest chance that such a thing would happen. “Spoiler: it can’t happen. Not at the level of a fungus that takes over human behavior causing them to infect others,” he reassures.
According to him, there are many species of Ophiocordyspas, not all of which control their victims, and each species infects a different species of ant, beetle, caterpillars and other insects. “The fungus started by infecting beetles, infected ants, and during evolution also developed into a fungus specific to and controlling ants. The ant’s fungus probably won’t be able to infect a beetle. If a parasite infects the wrong victim, they both die horribly. In this case the spore will not grow,” he says.
Wait a minute, so from “this can’t happen”, we moved to a fungus that undergoes evolution and slowly takes over more species? How exactly is this supposed to calm us down? Leviathan reassures and says that the distance between a beetle and an ant is not great, because they are similar, but the transition to humans is not possible, first and foremost because humans have a high body temperature. “Many fungi live at ambient temperature. Ants have no body heat. Spores don’t know how to grow at this temperature,” he claims. “In biology, you never say no. But it’s unlikely.” To what extent is it possible to relax the Ophiocordyspes anxiety we developed during the writing of this article? So much so that we can tell you that Cordyceps mushrooms (most of which are actually Ophiocordyspes) are considered medicinal mushrooms that humans consume (and are also sold in Israel), since the time of the Emperor The Chinese and the aristocracy Just look at Cordyceps, and you’ll see how many advertisers will pounce on you like hungry zombies.
There is nothing to sleep quietly
know what? Let’s say we relaxed from the concept of contagion – in the impossible (but yes biologically possible?) scenario of an epidemic caused by Ophiocordyspasm, would we really not be able to develop a medicine that would save humanity? Leviathan claims that “Anyone who has ever caught a fungus somewhere knows that there are pills and ointments and treatments, but it doesn’t always work, and fungi unlike bacteria are relatively similar to us. Harming the fungus without harming the patient is difficult. PTeriya who manages to take over humans in a few hours? It won’t be possible to take care of it.” Now we calmed down.
Although the general concept of a fungus taking over the victim’s body is shown both in nature with Ophiocordypus and in The Last Of Us through zombies, here the creators of the fictional brand have already taken a completely different creative direction with the fungus: in the show and in the game, the fungus makes the victim aggressive, which which does not have a counterpart in real life. “There are parasites that cause a violent behavioral change, like rabies for example, but in Ophiocardispes this does not happen” explains Levitan. In addition, according to the series, zombies can infect other humans in the show just by biting (and in the game also using spores, which were removed from the show). And finally, the series introduced an interesting concept of the mushrooms, which create an underground communication network, allowing zombies miles away to know that a human is in a certain location and arrive en masse. This is a concept that does exist among mushrooms, which communicate using electrical signals underground, but specifically in Ophiocordyspes, Leviathan explains that each mushroom is found in its victim and nothing else.
Leviathan, if you were wondering, is a devout viewer of the show (and is waiting for the PC version of the game that should be released at the end of the season), and although he knows that the scenario itself does not make sense, he claims that he greatly appreciates the desire of the creators to insert realistic elements into the fictional plot. “They made sure that the growth of the mushrooms was similar to reality, and I liked the clarification of the first episode about global warming that will make the mushrooms more violent.”
So is humanity safe?
Leviathan: “Humanity is really not safe. Specifically from Opium Cordyceps – yes, but in the series we see how the outbreak happens all over the world, and we saw in reality how an epidemic spreads quickly all over the world. As long as we do not deal with global warming, we will close live markets like in China and not invade the forests and contract diseases without living…. But at least they won’t take over our brains like that.”
And if a rival channel to HBO wants to create a quality imitation of The Last of Us, it could take Leviathan’s advice and write a similar plot about another parasitic fungus that exists in reality, turning cicadas into sex-addicted zombies whose behinds fall off. This is not TV, this is reality.