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Originally Posted by The Vorpal Tribble
Really? That actually happens?
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Yeah. although that video when they show the fungus growing they are actually using a time-elapsed video over the course of a few hours. But still very nasty and very cool. Cordyceps is my third favorite parasite. My second most favorite is Toxoplasma gondii which normally infects cats and rats and modifies rats brains to get the rats to be eaten by cats. Humans are frequently infected by Toxoplasm although we're a dead end for the parasite. There's some evidence that infection in humans does produce some effects, including being more likely to have mental illness. On the other hand, there's some evidence that infection might be correlated with increased creativity and intelligence. Possibly most worrying, some fairly developed countries have infection rates in H. sapiens as high as 80%.