Good news for those of us just a little bit traumatized by the concept of the fungus that has decimated humanity in the video game (and TV show, and graphic novel series for that matter) The Last of Us: it’s not scientifically possible for that to happen in real life. Slightly less good news, however: it’s not entirely impossible, either.

The wonderful Death & Decay: The Science of Gaming’s Favorite Diseases panel at PAX West 2024 brought Arizona State University Microbiology Graduate Student Lizbeth Nieves to the stage to explain what would need to happen to allow the very real Cordyceps — a fungus that transforms ants into mind-controlled delivery systems for… well, more Cordyceps — to spread to humanity, just like Joel and Ellie are used to.

What are the problems? Well, humans are too warm blooded for Cordyceps to survive, for one thing, and we also have better immunological responses than ants. We also have more neurons than ants — 85,000,000,000, versus ants’ 250,000 on average. Although that last one is not necessarily a problem. “There actually are brain-infecting fungus, so we can just essentially isolate those genes,” Nieves cheerfully explained.

If someone wanted to make The Last of Us’s fungal virus a reality, Nieves suggested, all that would be necessary would be for something to “force” the Cordyceps to evolve to survive in warmer bodies and co-opt the already-real brain-infecting fungi… which isn’t really the most comforting thought, really.

“Can this actually happen?” Nieves said, referring to the events of The Last Of Us. Her answer was a little disconcerting: “Not yet.”

Watch the full Death & Decay: The Science of Gaming’s Favorite Diseases from PAX West 2024 below.

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