Could "The Last Of Us" Really Happen with Fungus!?

Could a fungus really rapidly evolve to take over human bodies and cause us to become walking zombies? Dr. Matt Kasson discusses the science behind HBO's "The Last Of Us," and gives a brief overview of cordyceps and how they evolve alongside better-suited hosts.
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Instagram → / westvirginiau
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LEARN more about West Virginia University at www.wvu.edu.
Learn more about our majors, scholarships, visiting, requesting information, and applying at go.wvu.edu/wvuadmissions.

[@major3041]

And now he's patient 0...jokes aside it would be interesting though to make it jump to other species that closer to insects and keep on making it jump until it finds its way to humans. Is that possible though?

[@fajaradi1223]

Some parasites do jumps over genus and species. Such as tape worms, ticks, etc. And some fungus do infest human. Such as dandruffs, and some minor skin diseases.

[@Rashed1255]

I wouldn’t be surprised if there are experiments trying to make this happen

[@fajaradi1223]

IIRC Dandruff is also somekind of fungi right? Imagine if dandruff evolves into something like those Cordyceps.

[@tabuburn]

Head & Shoulders would make bank if that happens.

[@benjamincristofani920]

I was thinking about this 2 hrs ago. It would make sense because it’s more accustomed to our body temp. But that’s about it, definitely not gonna happen

[@oszaszi]

I wish he would explain why there is no risk currently cause that would put it into perspective. Just like most things in this world, there is a reason why they dont infect humans. They cannot live in the human body temperature. The fear most people have is just the same as reality, there is a change in the worlds temperature overall. And we already observe that animals started to "adjust" to that. E.g.: how birds and other animals shrink with climate change. We can never know what will happen in the future as a cause to our actions. We can only hope for the best. Cause there are things that are absolutely out of our control, and even our knowledge. There is no way for humanity to prepare for all the potential threats, that changes in evolution could cause. But its worth to mention that if the current state of the fungus is "comfortable" there will be no reason for it to evolve. Most thing in our world evolves for survival. So, as long as we have insects, we are probably safe from this specific fungus. And we do know that other fungus CAN and DO infects people. But usually dont die from them.

[@usmc-veteran73-77]

Gross & Nasty..... but cool