Keep your ghosts and ghouls—the Cordyceps fungus creates real-life zombies

I have never really been interested in ghosts, mummies or zombies, not even at Halloween. But as October 31 approaches each year, I am reminded of a biological tale involving all three. It's the real-life horror story of a flesh-eating, brain-warping fungus from the genus Cordyceps, which inspired the zombie-apocalypse video game and "TV series The Last of Us."