Name: The Real Zombie Fungus from The Last of Us Explained
Uploaded: 2026-02-02T17:08:48.000Z
Duration: 5 min 14 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Basic passive voice

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I'm gonna geek out for a second, if you don't mind.

The characters, the acting, the amount of tissues I'm gonna consume as the show goes on.

See, let's talk about the mind hacking fungus that turns you into a zombie in the show.

But don't worry, there's no way that's real, right?

Bob burned the house down on purpose this time.

This zombie fungus is one of over 400 species that belong to the genus Cordyceps.

Most of these species are parasitic, targeting insects, taking over their bodies and eventually killing them all in the name of reproduction.

One of the most studied species is Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which infects carpenter ants.

When the spores of this fungus make contact with a carpenter ant, they attach and grow throughout its body, draining it of its nutrients and eventually taking control over its muscles.

The fungus makes the ant leave the nest, climb onto a leaf and bite down hard.

The fungus then devours the ant and sprouts growths that burst and release more spores.

The process takes anywhere from four days to two weeks.

While this may look like mind control, studies have found that the fungus never penetrates the brain.

Instead, it controls the body by forming networks, encircling the muscles and invading the muscle fibers.

Scientists believe the fungus then secretes chemicals that make the muscles contract.

And while the parts of the brain that control movement of these body parts dies off, the rest of the brains remain intact, at least until the ant itself dies.

This could mean that the ant is alive and aware of what's happening as it's being physically manipulated.

Kind of makes you feel bad for beheading all those clickers.

And as actual zombie fungus experts have explained, there's no current Cordyceps species capable of infecting humans or any other mammal.

And if one did somehow evolve to do so, they most likely wouldn't be sophisticated enough to control your body.

In fact, humans have actually been ingesting one Cordyceps species for centuries in order to gain a variety of health benefits.

Sinensis and it grows from the caterpillar of the Hippiolus moth.

It's a traditional Tibetan and Chinese herb and it's used to treat everything from colds to kidney disorders to to cancer.

While some preliminary research has shown promising results, there haven't been many human studies, so more evidence is still needed to truly know its effectiveness.

Nevertheless, the Ophiocordyceps sinensis market is really competitive.

If you want to buy the real thing, it will cost you over $20,000 per kilogram.

So now don't worry, you can just let the TV show an excellent video game mentally destroy you without the fear of the fungus for now.

I will not hesitate to burn every house down.

So have you been watching the Last of Us show or have you played the game?

Please also tell me a video game or show you love that you would want me to make a science y video on any of them?

It's not easy to stop these mushroom baddies in the games and TV show, but

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