yego.me
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)

Describing populations | Ecology and natural systems | High school biology | Khan Academy
What Credit Card Companies Don’t Tell You

More Articles

View All
Save the Ocean, Save Ourselves | Sea of Hope: America's Underwater Treasures
There’s been this arc to my career in the sense that in the beginning I just wanted to make beautiful pictures. But I began more and more to see all these problems happening in the ocean. Fewer fish in the places I used to see many fish, or not as many sh…
A capacitor integrates current
So now I have my two capacitor equations; the two forms of the equation. One is I in terms of V, and the other is V in terms of I. We’re going to basically look at this equation here and do a little exercise with it to see how it works. I’m going to draw…
WEIRDEST Images of the Week: IMG! 11
You can buy pens at pen is.net. Wait! And the most awesome guitar ever! It’s episode 11 of [Music] IMG. Hey buds, sup player? Here’s Shaquille O’Neal, and here he is last weekend for Halloween as Shakita. And yes, he sang Beyoncé! But if you’re still not…
She Is Not For You
And we had a night class. A few years ago, I’ll never forget it. This guy puts up his hand, who hasn’t contributed anything all night. He says, “Listen, I’ve been running this business out of my dorm, and I’m about to graduate. It’s a cloud business that …
How to handle naysayers when starting a business?
So one of the hardest things when you are starting as an entrepreneur, when you’re trying to start some type of anything, whether it’s a business or a non-profit or an organization, is you’re going to want to share your idea and what you’re working on wit…
The Bullet Block Experiment
Alright, here is the setup: I have a rifle mounted vertically and we’re going to shoot a bullet into this block, right into the middle of it. So obviously the block is going to go flying into the air. But we’re going to do this again and instead of firin…