The real-life version of the apocalyptic fungus in ‘The Last of Us’ won’t turn you into a zombie – but it does have great benefits for agriculture

In "The Last of Us," cordyceps evolve to be able to infect humans through contaminated food - and it's able to wipe out a large portion of the population in a matter of days.

Holmes said it would be very unlikely for this scenario to play out in real life, and it all comes down to anatomy. Humans are a lot more complicated than ants - we have brains and complex nervous systems, and that means we're infinitely more difficult to control.

Case in point? Unlike vertebrates, arthropods have a comparatively straightforward nervous system that is made up of strands of nerves called ganglia. These can do basic behaviors, but their nervous system is so simple that it's possible to buy little kits that let you "hack" a cockroach's system and drive them.

"As far as I know, something like that does not exist for any vertebrate," Holmes said. "And that's why it would be extremely complicated for cordyceps to control a person."

Then, there's the fact that humans have a comparatively high body temperature. Holmes said research has noted that most fungi won't thrive in temperatures higher than 94 degrees Fahrenheit (a terrified mycologist on the show notes this fact too, only to realize, with dawning horror, that the species has somehow mutated anyway).

"A lot of hypotheses say the reason humans are the temperature we are is in part to make us difficult for fungi to live in," Holmes said.

With that being said, climate change is giving fungi a reason to adapt to higher temperatures. But, still: Don't panic. Holmes said the fact of the matter is that the human brain is incredibly complicated for any organism to decipher, let alone hijack. Also, adaptations like this would take millions of years to play out, so it's not something we're likely to see in our lifetimes.

And then, there's the matter of how cordyceps spread. In "The Last of Us," the infected bite other humans. Holmes said this simply isn't an effective method of transmission for any disease.

"We've almost eradicated rabies simply because the one-to-one interaction involved with biting doesn't allow anything to spread particularly quickly," Holmes said, adding a vigorous vaccine campaign also contributed to this success.

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