Zombies are real. They’re walking around on the bottom of Alaska’s ocean, mindlessly incubating the next generation of creatures that will, in turn, create even more zombies.
Imagine a king crab, living the good life. He’s minding his own business, happily scavenging the bottom of the ocean for food with his fellow crabs, when all of a sudden he’s attacked and infected. The infection eventually castrates him and takes over his body.
Now, he’s dedicated to raising the offspring of his attacker.
How does this happen?
Leah Sloan is a Ph.D. student at the University of Alaska School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences. Her doctoral research project is zombie king crabs. Well, actually, she’s studying the parasite that creates zombie king crabs. It’s a barnacle, but it’s nothing like the barnacle many of us have seen clinging to the bottom of boats.
