In Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel, Frankenstein’s monster is stitched together from dead tissue and shocked into a chaotic, artificial imitation of life. It is the ultimate science fiction trope.

A new HBO hit show, called The Last of Us, is gaining popularity and possibly inspiring a fear of fungi. In the show, a species of fungus infects humans and turns them into living zombies who then ...

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, ...