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Some of the most interesting science fiction from the creepy real phenomenon. If appropriate, mutant parasites from the video game series The Last of Us.
The creators of the franchise, including the HBO show, got the idea from the kind of fungi that hijack ant’s brain and release deadly gusts of spores. (Both HBO and CNN belong to parent company Warner Bros Discovery.)
In “The Last of Us,” fungi can infect humans and cover tendrils in their skin. No one can stop the spread of the disease as each host ruptures with mushroom-like fruit to keep infecting others.
The actual fungal group Ophiocordyceps comes from a variety of insects, but the rest of the plot is pure science fiction.
This week, new discoveries shed light on how long mentally controlled parasites have been plaguing the insect world.
A 99 million-year-old Amber flock has preserved one of the oldest examples of fungal parasites that trap zombie fungi that erupt from fly and hijack insect bodies before killing them. The fungus and their host would have lived with the scary dinosaurs.
Flies, like the second specimen of infected ants in their coco or pup stage, show the complexity of an ancient ecosystem, where fungal parasites can “prey” insects.
Both amber-covered specimens help scientists understand whether fungi are parasites that enter the fragile heads of today’s carpenter ants.
Axiom Space Mission 4, a private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, began Wednesday after extended delays due to years of leaks issued at research facilities in orbit.
It slowly escapes through a small crack in the tunnel connecting the Russian Zvezda module to the docking port of a spaceship carrying cargo and supplies.
The stable leak identified in 2019 has recently stopped, raising concerns that the entire space station is losing air.
Unprecedented footage shows the Antarctic of Sun
On European Space Agency and NASA missions, the Orbiter Sun spacecraft captured unprecedented footage of the Sun Antarctic.
The first space images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory have arrived.
Images and videos captured with the largest camera ever built include details of more than 2,000 newly detected asteroids, millions of distant galaxies and stars, and a stellar nursery nebula resembling colorful cotton candy.
The first glimpse into Rubin’s capabilities – over 10 hours of testing observations – is just a preview of what the station will produce over the next decade. It’s a cinematic view of the universe and how it changes over time.
The drone footage shows a different group of orcas in the Salish Sea in the Northeast Pacific, doing something that has never been seen before in marine mammals.
Michael Weiss, research director at the Whale Research Center in Friday Harbor, Washington, discovered that southern resident killer whales remove bull kelp chains from the seabed and groom each other in an exercise called “Allokelping.”
These kelp, rubbed against each other for up to 15 minutes at a time, can serve two purposes: peeling dead skin and deepening social bonds.
Keep up with these fascinating stories:
– “Super Coral” is naturally resilient due to changes in the environment and could be key to saving Australia’s big barrier reef. Conservation scientists have already discovered that many of these hardy species are growing in hot, acidic habitats.
– The everyday ed construction of the Dutch river has discovered an incredibly preserved, almost 1,000-year-old sword, decorated with spiritual symbols.
– Fossils excavated in Colorado belong to a previously unknown dinosaur species regarding the size of Labrador retrievers whose long hind legs were constructed for speedy running.
– Scientists say they have identified the oldest rock on Earth in Quebec. The outcrop reveals details of unknown chapters in the history of our planet.
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