yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

'Zombie' Parasite Cordyceps Fungus Takes Over Insects Through Mind Control | National Geographic


less than 1m read
·Nov 11, 2024

Fungi and slime molds race to decompose dead matter on the forest floor. Many spread by releasing spores up to thirty thousand a second. (scary music)

If just one of these spores lands in the right place, and takes root, it can colonize a whole new area. (scary music)

But not all fungi feed on the dead. (scary music) Days ago, a spore landed on this ant, now she's acting strange. A network of roots has infiltrated her muscles. Her body has been taken over by cordyceps, a parasitic fungus. It floods her brain with chemicals, drugging her, compelling her to head where conditions are perfect. (scary music)

Just the right amount of light. Just the right amount of humidity for the parasite growing inside. It forces her to clamp down in a death bite. And cordyceps reveals its gruesome nature. (scary music)

After three weeks of growth, cordyceps can release its own spores. Infecting more ants. Releasing more spores. Infecting more ants. Releasing more spores. Infecting more ants. Infecting more ants. More ants. More ants. More ants. (scary music)

Cordyceps can wipe out entire ant colonies. But more than just ants are at risk. (scary music)

There are over six hundred species of cordyceps spread across the world. Most are found in jungles where they prey on a whole host of victims. (scary music)

More Articles

View All
Margin of Safety by Seth Klarman Summary
Would you spend $350 on a book to learn about investing? Well, that is the current price to purchase the book “Margin of Safety” by Seth Clarman. This book is so rare that it is arguably one of the hardest investing books to get a hold of. Thankfully, I w…
Plesiosaurs 101 | National Geographic
(water splashes) (ominous music) [Narrator] Sea monsters are considered to be mythical creatures at the center of tall tales. (lighting crackling) But science tells a story of real-life monsters lurking in Earth’s prehistoric seas, monsters called plesi…
How to avoid phishing attempts. However it’s spelled, it’s bad news
Hi, everyone. Sal Khan here from Khan Academy, and I’m here with Grace Hoyt, head of Account Security Partnerships at Google to talk a little bit about online safety. Welcome, Grace. Thanks for having me, Sal. So let’s just start at the basics. What is …
Astronauts Training for Moon Missions | National Geographic
(Uplifting music) I’m astronaut Nicole Mann. I am astronaut Frank Rubio. I am NASA astronaut Jessica Meir. So there’s about a million things going through my mind as I think about going to the moon. You know that the little kid inside of me just get…
How Dax Flame Became Famous
After I graduated high school, I acted in movies. I acted in Project Decks, so then I got recognized from that, but mostly from 21 Jump Street, which I acted in the following year. So after they were released, I went and traveled a lot, and I wrote a boo…
TIL: Bees Could Help Save Elephants—By Scaring Them | Today I Learned
[Music] African bees are renowned to be very vicious, and, uh, elephants are terrified because they literally don’t want to have a bee of their trunk stinging them. Elephants tend to rest under very big trees, and if there is a natural beehive, the eleph…