HBO’s “The Last of Us,” a new television series based on the acclaimed videogame of the same name, finally premiered on Sunday following a hotly anticipated run-up. The story follows an unlikely duo as they traverse a post-apocalyptic, monster-ridden America, years after a zombie fungus ravaged humanity. It’s spooky stuff, and considering that a) the zombie fungus that the story is based on is real and b) humanity is currently still recovering from a global pandemic that’s killed millions thus far, you might forgive viewers for wondering: could this actually happen? Again, the show’s plot is based on a real group of fungi, Ophiocordyceps. More commonly known as the “zombie fungus” — very on the nose, scientists — this genus of fungi have the ghoulish capacity to hijack infected insect hosts’ minds, killing the host from within as it makes its way to a buggo’s brain. Once the poor insect is dead, the fungus is able to then manipulate the infected nervous system to maneuver the body, guiding the undead carcass to the highest vantage point it can reach. The higher it can get, the more it can spread its spores — and thus, the more insects it can eventually infect… (READ MORE)

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