Something on the Brain

Carl Zimmer, over at The Loom, reminds us of his fascination with parasites. In this case, the Cordyceps fungus, which takes over the brain of an ant. David Attenborough narrates. I was particularly struck by the fact that other ants, on discovering one of their fellows suffering from the onset of symptoms of Cordyceps infection will carry away bodily the unfortunate victim to a safe distance beyond the colony, so that the spores will not infect the rest of the colony.