The Last of Us

[intrepidity]

5. On the topic of the science

I don't know of it was in that video or another I had seen, but apparently it was recently discovered that cordyceps does *not* infiltrate the brains of the ants it infects, but rather attaches to muscle cells/fibers to direct and control movement. Fascinating! The fungus needs the brain intact to, apparently, locate the *precise*---and it is remarkably so!---location of the leaf that it will eventually die upon, as cordyceps finally produces the fruiting body the pierces through the skull, killing the ant.

I can't wait to learn *how* this actually works. Is it a hallucinogen that causes the ant to believe that it must go to that leaf that is exactly x-distance above the ground, exactly y-distance from the colony above, but with the fungus coordinating the movement to get there? Or, is the role of the fungus on the muscles to *prevent* movement completely once it is on the leaf? And, how does the fungus know? Does the fungus "learn" something from the "WoodWideWeb" after the ant pierces the leaf? I mean, how does this work??

If I were young, I might seriously be considering entering this field of research.