Hordes of brain-munching undead terrorizing neighborhoods make for fun TV and movies, but zombies could never be real ... or could they?
There are a growing number of documented examples in the animal kingdom of parasites that change their hosts’ behavior — and increasing evidence that humans are not immune to zombie-like manipulations.
It is a subject that has fascinated theoretical evolutionary biologist Athena Aktipis of Arizona State University, who hosts a podcast called “Zombified” that applies real-world science to the types of apocalyptic stories first popularized by filmmaker George Romero in the 1960s and now a staple horror genre.
“More than half of the species that we know on Earth are parasites,” Aktipis told reporters.
One example is the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus, which releases spores that infect the carpenter ant’s body, allowing it to take over the insect’s locomotive activity.
Eventually it kills its host by forcing it to leave its nest and bite down on a piece of vegetation, which it gets stuck to as a result of a tetanus-like infection that gives it lockjaw.
The parasitic fungus erupts out of its host’s head with a mushroom-like growth called a stroma. At night, when uninfected ants are out foraging, this growth shoots out more infectious spores and the two to three-week cycle repeats itself.
“We’re totally convinced that the behaviors that the ant show are all to benefit the fungus,” said Charissa de Bekker, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Central Florida who is carrying out genetic research to better understand the takeover process.
Another example among insects comes from two different wasp species, the crypt gall wasp and the parasitoid crypt-keeper wasp.
Kelly Weinersmith, a biology professor at Rice University who was part of the team that made the discovery, said that a healthy crypt gall wasp matures inside a compartment formed in an oak tree called a “crypt.”
Eventually the larva grows up and chews its way out of the tree.
However, when the parasitoid finds crypt gall wasp larvae, it lays its own egg in the crypt, and the parasite manipulates the host into chewing a hole that is too small to escape from — such that it can only stick its head out.
“After they get trapped there, the parasitoid eats [the crypt gall wasp’s] insides,” Weinersmith said. “When the parasitoid is done developing, it chews a hole in the head of the host and emerges through its head… It’s all super creepy.”
If you think nothing like that could ever happen to humans, think again.
The single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii might have infected about 40 million Americans, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data showed.
The parasite “somehow evolved to make a rat get turned on by the smell of cat urine, so it goes up to a cat and snuggles with it, and then it gets eaten, which completes the life cycle of the Toxoplasma — if that’s not zombification then what is?” Aktipis said.
People can get infected by eating undercooked meat — or through their pet cats, especially when cleaning out their litter boxes.
Some studies have reported an association between brain infection of the parasite and personality traits such as risk-taking and aggression, although other research has disputed these findings.
Likewise, rabies makes animals and people aggressive, and in some cases makes humans extremely sexually aroused.
There is even growing evidence that the bacteria in human intestines change our emotions and behavior, including what is found as appetizing, the subject of another paper that Aktipis coauthored.
However, it would require a huge evolutionary leap for Toxoplasma to do to humans what it does to rats.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese