{
  "id": 17841815,
  "title": "Zombies are real—just ask the parasites taking over the bodies and brains of insects and rodents",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/02/zombies-are-real-just-ask-the-parasites-taking-over-the-bodies-and",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-11-02T18:40:12.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Phys.org",
    "slug": "phys-org",
    "url": "https://phys.org/news/2026-11-zombies-real-parasites-bodies-brains.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Zombies have taken many forms in popular culture. In Michael Jackson's \"Thriller\" music video, corpses climb out of their graves and perform an impressively coordinated dance. In HBO's \"The Last of Us,\" a fungus infects humans, takes over their bodies and turns them into hosts that help spread the infection. Even Plankton has tried his hand at taking control of another organism in \"SpongeBob…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Conversation",
        "title": "Zombies are real – just ask the parasites taking over the bodies and brains of insects and rodents, leading them to their doom",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/zombies-are-real-just-ask-the-parasites-taking-over-the-bodies-and",
        "published": "2026-10-30T20:13:37.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}