EPISODE · Feb 3, 2023 · 51 MIN
Zombie Fungus
from A Little Greener · host A Little Greener
With the TV show The Last of Us currently all the rage, Sara and Casey talk the real-life zombie fungus. They discuss how zombie fungus works, what the show gets right and wrong, and whether we should be afraid of a zombie fungus pandemic. They also discuss the amazing diversity of fungi and some of the benefits we get from these often overlooked organisms. Resources for this episode: Discovery: The Largest Living Thing on Earth is a 3.5 sq mi Fungus Smithsonian: The Real Zombie Fungus That Inspired HBO's The Last of Us Vox: The “zombie” fungus in The Last of Us, explained by a biologist PNAS: Three-dimensional visualization and a deep-learning model reveal complex fungal parasite networks in behaviorally manipulated ants BMC Ecology: Behavioral mechanisms and morphological symptoms of zombie ants dying from fungal infection National Geographic: Fungi Are Key to Our Survival, Are We Doing Enough to Protect Them?
What this episode covers
With the TV show The Last of Us currently all the rage, Sara and Casey talk the real-life zombie fungus. They discuss how zombie fungus works, what the show gets right and wrong, and whether we should be afraid of a zombie fungus pandemic. They also discuss the amazing diversity of fungi and some of the benefits we get from these often overlooked organisms. Resources for this episode: Discovery: The Largest Living Thing on Earth is a 3.5 sq mi Fungus Smithsonian: The Real Zombie Fungus That Inspired HBO's The Last of Us Vox: The “zombie” fungus in The Last of Us, explained by a biologist PNAS: Three-dimensional visualization and a deep-learning model reveal complex fungal parasite networks in behaviorally manipulated ants BMC Ecology: Behavioral mechanisms and morphological symptoms of zombie ants dying from fungal infection National Geographic: Fungi Are Key to Our Survival, Are We Doing Enough to Protect Them?
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Zombie Fungus
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