The series of The Last of Us, the popular production of the game world, has been officially published. If you are watching the series starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal, you may think that you are safe knowing that the world in which the series takes place is completely fictional. However, according to the news of the British Daily Mail, the zombie infection in The Last of Us is real. Fungi can swallow insects from the inside out. Experts say it’s not an exaggerated or remote possibility that a similar parasite could evolve to infect humans.
“THE LAST OF US ZOMBIE INFECTION IS REAL”
According to the news, a fungus that turns victims into zombies is spreading all over the world in the series about young Ellie and her companion, smuggler Joel. This parasite is actually based on a real group of fungi that grows in the victim’s body after being infected and can control its behavior.
Photo Source: Naughty Dog Twitter account
WHAT SPECIES IS THE MUSHROOM IN ‘THE LAST OF US’?
Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, co-creators of The Last of Us, said the fungus is based specifically on Cordyceps, which infects carpenter ants. This fungus forces infected ants to climb to the top of a plant and clamp their jaws on the plant to a clamp that can trap it until it dies. The fungus then extracts antenna-like stalks from its victim’s exoskeleton and ‘sprays’ spores. This allows it to infect as many insects as possible.
“NOR EXTRAORDINARY IDEAS”
Experts, on the other hand, said that the idea that a similar fungus could evolve to infect humans is not a far-fetched idea.
One of these fungi is Entomophthora Muscae, which infects female houseflies and uses its victim’s corpse to attract males to mate with it.
Professor at the University of Copenhagen, Dr. According to Henrik de Fine Licht, the “jump” of a fungal disease from one species (in this case, insects) to humans is not far off idea.
Dr. “So this idea is fascinating,” de Fine Licht said, noting that most, if not all, of the new diseases likely come from pathogenic organisms that have changed in other species. said.
But while it is possible for a disease to pass from a non-human creature to a human, it will likely take millions of years of evolution.
SIMILARIES BETWEEN E. MUSCAE AND FUNNY IN THE SEQUENCE
Working with Dr.de Fine Licht, PhD student Sam Edwards noticed the similarities between E. muscae and the fictional fungi in the show, through the way an elderly woman in The Last of Us reacted to an infection.
Sam Edwards explains, “We see the old woman twitching in her chair in the background. She does this at sunset, when the manipulation took place in E. muscae. Also, the old woman has strange protrusions from her mouth as she “feeds” with her relatives. E. muscae also comes out of the fly’s mouth after manipulation. ” said.