Brain-jacking fungus turns living victims into 'zombies' Scientists say they have discovered a horrific flesh-eating fungus which is able to infect living creatures and turn them into "zombies". The hapless victims are then compelled to shamble away to a location where their immobilised bodies - as they are gradually consumed from within, acting as food supply and nest to the ghastly …
A creationist would argue that something like this must be designed rather than chance, after all how could a simple fungus appear to know so much about the workings of an ant and be able to control and direct an ant in a way that should be beyond the understanding of a fungus.
Then my counter argument would be, well if God designed something like that, then why would he bother, it's gross and ickky and pointless.
If there is a God he was possibly smoking something dodgy when he thought that one up.
Flames, because yeah I mentioned religion and now need to keep my head down...
Why is the logical conclusion that the fungus is controlling the ants?
More logical is that an ant knows that it is ill and does not want others to become ill so moves as far away as it can. Then funds a safe place under a leaf.
Sounds more logical than a fungus controlling brain function. However its probably more news worthy when presented this way.
that affects slugs as I remember, which causes the the snail to climb to the top of a plant and advertise itself as food for birds (this is combined with weirdly pulsing eye stalks).. Once the snail is eaten the spores are passed out through the birds droppings to infect new snails.
(It may be slugs not snails as I was reading about it ages ago & the video footage is rank to quote my daughter)
That's a fine theory, and testable - ie, do ants regularly go jab their mandibles into a high leaf when they're ill? I suspect people who study this may have already considered it ...
Actually I'm not sure why it would make sense that the ants, when feeling ill, would of their own volition position themselves high above other ants and let the disease bearing agents rain down on their kin.
Personally I'll at least listen to the people who care about being right on this.
Isn't logic a wonderful thing?
Unfortunately for you, that parasites can control host behaviour is well known, from directly manipulating the host brain by physical means, to releasing chemicals into the host (this can happen to humans too, by the way, google Toxoplasma gondii).
Also, if you read the article instead it states that this parasite was already well known, the latest paper is all about the actual mechanisms by which the parasite changes the behaviour of the host.
No it is not more logical, because Ants don't really think as such, they just do.
This fungus has evolved into a very specific niche. You may think that this is Fungus 1, Ants 0 but some ants (leafcutters IIRC) actually farm fungus for food. They take bits of leaf back to their burrow where conditions are right for growing fungus on it, they then eat the fungus.
So you can think of it as what our American cousins like to refer to as "Payback".
The logical conclusion is that one day, in the not-too-distant future, the mushrooms will start to invade out craniums. Oh hang on ...
Well that's another way to bring the end to human civilization. We've seen how viruses mutate to cross species so maybe this fungi could do the same. Then all it takes is someone to bring back a few spores in their suitcase and another country will get infected.
I'm sure this will spore on another zombie movie. (Haha, did you see what I did there?)
"Why is the logical conclusion that the fungus is controlling the ants?"
"More logical is that an ant knows that it is ill and does not want others to become ill so moves as far away as it can. Then funds a safe place under a leaf."
(Disclaimer: I Am Not A Biologist and the following is speculation)
This is where words like "control" can be misleading (if not anthropomorphic) in such contexts. It's quite likely that this *is* the case and the fungus has evolved to exploit this tendency of ants. It could be said to be "controlling" their brains in this way.
This is, as you say, far more likely than an organism as simple as a fungus somehow being able to manipulate the ants' brains in a more complex manner- exploiting an existing and inherent characteristic of ant behaviour. However, it doesn't actually contradict the headline.
It's quite possible that the story got distorted a couple of steps down the line from the original source (as happens with science stories) and will be "KILLER MUSHROOM DOES BRAIN SURGERY ON ANTS" by the time it appears in The Sun.
Singular: virus. Plural: viri (not virii)
Singular: fungus. Plural: fungi (not fungii)
OK, pedantry over.
In a different life I was a medical microbiologist, saving lives, here in the UK and later in Africa. To this day I remain in awe of what pathogenic microorganisms do to the hosts they infect. Even more clever are the parasites, which increase their own population without killing the host.
A truth that was told to me as a student is "Don't believe the text books as gospel. Germs don't read text books, so they make up the rules as they go along". In other words, they evolve. Another one for the creationists, FuzzyDuck (MRSA did not exist before we started using methicillin), so I am on your side!
This is hardly payback... in return for being nibbled on a bit, the fungus gets to be widely spread, and well protected from other insects which might overgraze it. Its future is pretty much assured.
You can see a not dissimilar relationship in the supermarket. Most successful bird species on earth? Avis Domestica. Though individuals get eaten fairly often, the species is incredibly widespread and its continued survival into the future is pretty much guaranteed, so long as it major predator continues to thrive, and they remain tasty and nutritious.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand... there's lots of similar parasitic fungi. Here's a delightful photo of one eating a fly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismorgan/3556399015/ It spreads in a similar fashion, by making the fly cling to a stem and spread its wings to act as a spore disseminator.
Catapillars:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14053-zombie-caterpillars-controlled-by-voodoo-wasps.html
Rats
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11516-parasite-hijacks-brains-with-surgical-precision.html
Oh My..
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227115.000-parasite-may-increase-your-odds-of-an-auto-accident.html
Give Leon a call, Las Plagas is here, run for the hills.
@Rob Crawford: Could this be the snail fungus you were referring to?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWB_COSUXMw
@Sergie Kaponitovicz: The plural of virus in the modern sense is generally accepted to be viruses. The Latin 'virus' seems to be one of those rare nouns that has never been recorded as having a plural, possibly because in the original Latin it appears to refer to poison or venom en mass rather than as something countable.
Let's agree to differ. I did say "pedantry aside", but for the record I believe that you are wrong. Any Latin word ending *****us when converted to the plural becomes *****i. I went to a good school: it was Approved.
When I was learning how to save lives, all of my tutors used the word 'viri' (pronounced v-eye-ree).
The Americans changed it to 'viruses' when Windoze woz shone 2 b a lode of shite.
"By Nextweek Posted Wednesday 12th August 2009 11:35 GMT
Why is the logical conclusion that the fungus is controlling the ants?
More logical is that an ant knows that it is ill and does not want others to become ill so moves as far away as it can. Then funds a safe place under a leaf.
Sounds more logical than a fungus controlling brain function. However its probably more news worthy when presented this way."
they go high up to allow the greatest chance of the spores given off by the fruiting fungus finding another ant to infect as ants avoid going near ants that are infected and move their trails accordinly
> "if God designed something like that, then why would he bother, it's gross and ickky and pointless."
My god would do it just for the kicks.
> "If there is a God he was possibly smoking something dodgy when he thought that one up"
Yup, that's him, all right.
Salve!
"Any Latin word ending *****us when converted to the plural becomes *****i. I went to a good school: it was Approved."
Doesn't make it Correct, though.
Try "casus" or "manus", or check out the "fourth declension".
As to "virus" which doesn't really have a plural, "virusticles" might work just as well if needed... :-)
Have a look at this: http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-Bio04Tuat01-t1-body-d1.html
Not exactly the same, but a similar concept. My Mother* has lots of these on display in her home, for curious grandsons to look at.
*She's a World Famous in New Zealand Botanist, not just eccentric.
I know that this might sound odd, but I'm having a really hard time seeing how gradual generational evolution through natural selection could produce such a fungus. I can believe all of the individual parts to some level, but for a fungus to evolve to the state where it can compel a completely separate species to go to a certain type of location and then hang upside down?
I'm not suggesting that this is fake, or some kind of CIA/Russian/alien experiment gone wrong, but I just cannot reconcile something so so complex and so specific with what I learned about evolution in school. I can buy that dinosaurs turned into birds, and all of that, but for a fungus to compel and an to hang upside down 25cm above the jungle floor, etc, etc. It's to much to take in.
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