The ‘The Last of Us’ fungus won’t cause a zombie holocaust, but the science is clear it’s not necessary

“Yes, that is the usual reaction. Mushrooms seem harmless, but many species know they are not. Because there are some fungi that do not seek to kill. Rather to control. Answer me: Where does LSD come from? It comes from ergot, a fungus, like Psilocybin viruses can make us sick, however Mushrooms can change our minds.

There is a fungus that infects insects. Let’s say you hit an ant. It travels through the circulatory system to his brain and floods it with hallucinogenic substances, thus breaking the will of the ants. The fungus begins to dictate the insect’s behaviour. He tells you where to go and what to do, like a puppeteer with his moving puppet. And there’s more: the fungus needs to eat to survive, so it begins to devour the host from the inside, replacing the ant’s flesh with its own. But he doesn’t let his victim die, no. He cares about keeping her alive. “At least, if we can call that life. Welcome to science.”The last of us“.

Words are not our words. Thus begins the series adaptation of one of the most popular video games of recent years, “The Last of Us”. A series that, moreover, has been on everyone’s lips for weeks. And not for less because The approach (this evolution of the zombie phenomenon) is very interesting. Even if only for the sake of “inspiration with real events.”

real facts? Can mushrooms do these things?

Obviously not in humans: but we can say that it was inspired by nature. A priori, the premises of the series and the video game do not coincide (for scientific and plot reasons), but they are very similar. In the early 2000s, BBC Documentary film “Planet Earth” They specifically talked about zombie ants. It was one of the elements that helped catapult ophiocordyceps into the public imagination.

And yes, the fungus that causes an epidemicThe last of us” It is drawn from a family of 400 or 500 different species Parasitic fungi. Specifically, the Ophiocordyceps is one-sided. fungus when ants enter, It grows until it reaches the brain and takes over the ant. This fungus successfully “drives” victims onto certain plants, where it clamps its jaws on the stem and dies. At that time, mushrooms grow around them and they become spores spreaders. So much so that they can easily wipe out entire colonies.

It is not an isolated case. existing snails foray Leucochloridium paradoxum They undergo a terrifying physical transformation that alters their eyes and results in parasites taking over the body to expose it to the sun and be easy prey for birds. Thanks to it, by growing inside and being expelled by the bird, it can repeat its life cycle.

Like I said, there is more; But those are certainly the most popular. And the most used to talk about the “science” of zombies. Fortunately, when we talk about humans, things get a little more complicated, and this We have spent centuries thinking they can do whatever they want with us.

Epidemics of dancing, laughing, or fainting

“The Wedding Ball” (1568), by Pieter Brueghel the Elder

In mid-July 1518, a lady named Troffea stood in the middle of a street in Strasbourg and started dancing. Without paying attention to the reasons, without explaining anything: she danced, danced, danced without stopping. And worse, it wasn’t just her. By the end of the week, he had been joined by 34 people, and by the end of the month, There were 400 people dancing in the city.

The dancing epidemic in Strasbourg killed about 15 people from heart attacks, seizures, or simple exhaustion. 15 people a day. “There are dozens of medical notes, Sunday sermons, provincial records and municipal proceedings on this matter,” but for centuries no one knew exactly what happened. Neither was there nor in Colbeck (Saxony) in 1021 that 18 people began to dance on Christmas Eve; neither in Erfurt in 1247, nor in Maastricht soon after. The entire 16th century is filled with issues in Switzerland, France, the Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire.

The most rational theories have always had a fungus as their point of view: the ergot. At the time, this fungus easily contaminated rye and caused the well-known “ergot” (orSaint Anthony’s Fire‘). As we explained a few years agoaccording to LSD is made from ergotIt seems logical that the spread of ergot (game baked in poor condition) could cause this type of epidemic.

The problem is that ergot chemicals may cause seizures and hallucinations, but it doesn’t seem like they could make hundreds of people dance for days until they died. Furthermore, these “epidemics of strange behavior” are not unique to the Middle Ages. On January 30, 1962, Three girls started laughing in a small town on Lake Tanganyika. And before long, 95 kids from the same school were laughing out loud. They did this for 16 days and caused an epidemic that caused over a thousand cases and the closure of 14 schools. In the West Bank in 1983 there was The blackout epidemic Which ended with 943 hospital admissions without cause. Or rather, without finding a clear reason.

Is a “zombie epidemic” possible?

Obviously, no mushroom is capable of destroying the world and turning our lives into an “last us” scenario. But if we think about it for a moment, the question is on the table: To the extent that we don’t quite understand what happened in those events… What if, instead of dancing, laughing, or swooning, people gave up killing other people? And if he gives them to eat his mind? Will we face a real “zombie” epidemic?

We seem to be walking away from the “other of us” science, but not really. We are getting closer to the real possibility of a freak event. Above all, because it affects one of the most unknown topics in contemporary medicine and psychology: What in the words of john waller, professor of history at Michigan State University, we could call it “mass hysteria”: how, whether there is an epidemic or not, humans have more than enough mechanisms to go crazy, do weird things and carry on as if nothing were to happen. Come on, the really central thing in “The Last of Us”: How do we face who we really are.