For anyone interested in weird parasites (which should be EVERYONE, but definitely includes me), Mo Costandi has a great piece on the Guardian website’s science section on new research into the Cordyceps fungi:

Zombie-ant parasitic fungus kept in check by hyperparasitic fungus

Well worth a read, especially if you enjoy scientists reeling off lines like “the high density of zombie-ant cadavers in the graveyard”. Also, Cordyceps is everyone’s favourite zombie-ant parasitic fungus, right?

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, I took the picture at the beginning of this post just the other day…   after a girl in my office invited me over to watch those tiny white maggots burrowing their way out of that bee. It was AWESOME.

Because I’m super-pumped about it and it’s kind of tenuously linked as it seems like there’s some kind of weird alien parasite crap going on, here’s the trailer for Prometheus. I AM SO EXCITED.

This film is to be directed by Ridley Scott, and set in the same ‘universe’ as his original Alien film. On this topic, I was really interested to read the letter that James Cameron wrote to critics of his sequel to that movie (Aliens), especially his consideration of entomology and parasitism when constructing the aliens’ lifecycle. I suppose it isn’t too surprising given his recent trip to the Mariana trench, but very nice to see someone in that industry displaying a love of and interest in science…