The zombie apocalypse depicted in the popular video game series and newly adapted HBO series “The Last of Us” derives from a mutation to a type of fungus called cordyceps. Surprise! Cordyceps is real.

Yes, the fungus is among us. The video game-inspired hit zombie apocalypse show “The Last of Us” draws its inspiration from our own reality and ecology: The show’s fatal fungus exists throughout ...

The hit HBO show "The Last of Us" may have taken the world by storm this year (and the video game world nearly a decade ago), but the villain in the series has been around much longer than either of ...

The zombies are identifiable by the fungi bursting from their bodies: a thicket of spiky tendrils, a miniature garden of mushroom-like fruiting bodies. These fungal parasites act as puppeteers, ...

In the video game and HBO show The Last of Us, humans struggle to survive after an infectious fungus turns ordinary people into zombies. Creators of the franchise didn't look far for inspiration — the ...