Did you know that there's a fungus that will infect an ant and make it do it's bidding? This fungus will attach itself to an ant as it passes by and releases chemicals into its body that allows the fungus to control it. The fungus will direct the ant to an area where the fungus can thrive the best and spread its spores. Once the ant reaches the area it will clamp down on a leaf and die shortly after. Interestingly enough, researchers have found that the ant will only clamp down at high noon and die sometime in the evening. What's also interesting is that the fungus (Ophiocordyceps) seems to mostly infect Carpenter ants. the Ophiocordyceps lives and grows only in rain forests, mostly in Brazil and some in Thailand.
Now one thing that everyone loves and has become a huge craze lately is zombies. This causes me to think about something. What if scientists were able to somehow mutate this fungus and make it control humans? What if they could create true, human zombies? I wouldn't be surprised if some scientists were trying to figure out a way to create zombies right now. This may seem like a crazy thing to most people, but I happen to think that it's a very interesting topic.
To learn more about these zombified ants you can visit these sites-
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110303-zombie-ants-fungus-new-species-fungi-bugs-science-brazil/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/05/110511-zombies-ants-fungus-infection-spores-bite-noon-animals-science/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1386717/Why-zombie-ants-infected-mind-controlling-fungus-kill-high-noon.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fungus-makes-zombie-ants
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/aug/18/zombie-carpenter-ant-fungus
~MIGZARELLI~
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