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Learn with Us - Internet Society

What is Learning @ Internet Society?

Preparing a new generation to succeed as leaders in Internet technology, policy, and business is one of the Internet Society’s key objectives. To be successful, the next generation of Internet leaders will need a wide range of skills in a variety of disciplines – as well as the ability and experience to work with people at all levels of society.

Learning @ Internet Society is a way to bring people together in support of an open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet. It is a way to empower people with the knowledge they need to take action. And it is a way to prepare people to become the future leaders the Internet needs.

Since its inception in 1992, the Internet Society has been at the forefront of global Internet education, bringing essential information and training to people throughout the world. Between 2013 and 2020, we trained more than 100,000 learners worldwide.

Capabilities: ICT, Internet development and growth, infrastructure and connectivity, and capacity building.

Cultivates a global community, empowered through learning opportunities. They are committed to knowledge sharing and advocacy that contributes to building, promoting, and defending a bigger and stronger Internet.

Builds a global community that is informed and passionate about the shaping and development of the Internet.

What courses do we offer?

We offer moderated online courses, face-to-face courses, and self-paced tutorials for the Internet Society community.

These are available in online and offline mode, and in three languages (English, Spanish, and French). All courses are offered in high-bandwidth, low-bandwidth and text-based versions to accommodate network connectivity issues. All versions adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA and are mobile responsive.

Our courses cover topics important to the Internet industry, particularly for growing and strengthening the Internet. By learning with the Internet Society, participants will be able to:

Enhance employability, entrepreneurship, and career skills in the Internet industry
Connect the unconnected
Champion protocols that keep the Internet secure
Build, promote, and defend the network of networks

Online moderated, face-to-face courses and self-paced tutorials

Available in online and offline mode

Available in English, French and Spanish

Offered in high-bandwidth, low-bandwidth and text-based versions

Adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA

Mobile responsive

Who can take our courses?

Everyone. If you would like to learn about the Internet, how it works, and shape its future, our online courses are for you! Our courses are aimed at people with different experience levels.

There are technical and nontechnical courses in our catalog. Technical courses may have prerequisites – requirements you must meet prior to enrollment. Please check the prerequisites before enrolling in a course.

View Online Course Catalog

View Course Calendar

It was an excellent experience on learning and implementing DNS. Internet Society Network Operations course was very helpful for me, especially [as] it brought an opportunity to uplift my professional career [and earn] a new job.
Deepthi Gunasekara, Network Operations course learner 2020

What else do you need to take our courses?

To take our courses, learners need:

Internet connection
Desktop or laptop with at least 1 gigahertz (GHz) 32-bit (x86), or 64-bit (x64) processor and 1GB or RAM or smartphone with similar characteristics
A modern web browser (Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 9 or later, Opera, Apple Safari, etc.) running an operating system supported by Virtualbox (Windows, Ubuntu, Mac OS X, etc.).
JavaScript and cookies enabled

Who are our tutors?

Our tutors are world-class experts who support course delivery by leading live chat sessions, responding to learner questions on the course forum, and sharing their expertise with the community. They have solid backgrounds and deep knowledge about the Internet. Our tutors possess vast expertise, hold relevant academic qualifications, and complete an annual training session to prepare them to be an official Internet Society tutor.

What are the learning platform features?

In our 2021 Action Plan, we made the commitment to build expertise and capacity of people so even more of us can help build an Internet for everyone. As part of that commitment, we have decided to enhance our learning platform to improve and expand features as well as continue to increase our course catalog. One particular area we have focused on is improving accessibility to give everyone the same opportunity to take our courses.

What’s new?

Accessibility:

The new learning platform is WCAG compliant and we will continue to evaluate and update to ensure it’s accessible for all. We also have WCAG 2.1 AA certified formats for all of our courses in English, French, and Spanish. Moreover, course content will be made available in a downloadable format for offline access and use.

Languages:

All of our courses will be offered in English, French, and Spanish.

Bandwidth sensitivity:

To offer the best experience for every learner no matter where they are located, all courses have high-bandwidth, low-bandwidth, and text-based versions. All content will also be made available in offline mode.

Mobile access:

The learning platform and all courses are now mobile responsive. Our courses can now also be accessed on a mobile device by downloading a mobile app so you no longer need a computer to be able to take an Internet Society course. Course content downloaded through our mobile app will be available even when you are not connected to the Internet.

Explore Courses and Enroll

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Learning @ Internet Society?

Learning @ Internet Society is a way to bring people together in support of an open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet. It empowers people with the knowledge they need to take action and prepare learners to become the future leaders the Internet needs.
Since its inception in 1992, the Internet Society has been at the forefront of Internet education, bringing essential information and training to people throughout the world.

Which courses are offered?

Our courses cover topics important to the Internet industry, particularly for growing and strengthening the Internet. View our course calendar and find out when courses will be offered during the year.

What types of courses are available?

We offer moderated, online, face-to-face (when it is safe to do so), and self-paced courses.

What is the duration of a course?

Our online courses are organized in weekly cycles starting on Mondays and they last four to six weeks.

How do I access the learning platform as an Internet Society member?

As an Internet Society member, you can log into learning.internetsociety.org with your member login credentials. There is no need to create a new account. If you do not remember your login information, select Forgot Login? to be emailed your username and receive a link to reset your password. Once logged in, you will be able to view the course catalog and select the course you’d like to enroll in.

How do I access the learning platform as a non-member?

Both guests and Internet Society members can access the learning platform. To register as either, click Register on the login box at learning.internetsociety.org. Next, either register as a member or click on the guest registration form to register as a guest. Once you create an account, you can use the credentials you created (username and password) to log into learning.internetsociety.org. Once logged in, you will be able to view the course catalog and enroll in courses.

How do I enroll in a course?

Browse available courses in the course catalog or use the search bar to find the course you would like to enroll in. On each course page, click the “Enroll” button in the top right corner of the page to immediately be added to a course. Once you have successfully been enrolled, you will be able to see the course under “My Courses and Learning Plans”. You will also be able to see information about the course instructor, view the course’s forums, and access any modules that are available. If the course has not yet started, you will not see any modules until the day the course begins.

How do I join the waitlist for a course?

If you are on a course page and the button in the top right corner of the page reads “Enroll (Waiting List)”, this means the course has reached the maximum number of participants able to enroll. You can click the button to join the waitlist for the course and you will be notified if a spot becomes available.

Who teaches the courses?

Our tutors have solid knowledge of our course topics and support course delivery by leading live chat sessions, responding to learner questions on the discussion forum, and sharing their expertise with the learning community. Our tutors have completed an annual training session to prepare them to be official Internet Society tutors.

How do I select the right course format?

When browsing the course catalog, you will see multiple versions of the same course available. All courses are available in English, French, and Spanish so first select the right language for you. You can do this by selecting the language of your choice in the left-hand filter in the course catalog or choosing the course that denotes the correct language (EN=English, FR=French, ES=Spanish).

You also have the option to choose the format that will work best for your connection type. All courses have 3 format options: high bandwidth, low bandwidth, and text-based for all connections. You can filter by bandwidth option in the left-hand filter on the course catalog or select the “Additional Information” tab when viewing a course to see which bandwidth connection you have selected.

If you have any questions about which version is best for you, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] to get assistance.

Is there a charge for the courses?

All of our courses are free.

Are textbooks required to take a course?

No. However, you will be able to download course content and resources in a PDF format from the course page.

Are there any homework assignments?

No, there are no homework assignments.

Is there a final exam?

No, there are no final exams. However, the completion of quizzes and other activities during the course is required.

In which languages are the courses available?

All course content is available in three languages: English, French, and Spanish. Some content is also available in Arabic.

Learn with Us | The Art Institute of Chicago

Through the Department of Learning and Public Engagement, the Art Institute champions the role of art in lifelong education, promoting equitable participation in art and the museum, fostering critical and creative thinking, and collaborating with diverse partners and communities to strengthen the fabric of our city.

Families
With free admission for kids under 14 and Chicago teens under 18, the Art Institute is the perfect place for a creative outing with the whole family.

Teens
Look at art. Make art. Talk about life. Meet new people. Be Inspired.
Educators
Explore diverse resources and dynamic professional development for K-12 educators and their students.
Adults
Experience dynamic virtual programs and in-person events for adults of all ages anchored in the museum’s collection and special exhibitions.
College and University Faculty and Students
Access resources to guide your research, support your teaching, and connect your students to art and scholarship at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Ryan Learning Center
Drop in to the Ryan Learning Center, where admission is always free. Find a space for family learning, art making, and more.
Volunteer Educators
Since the museum’s volunteer educator program was first established in 1961, these devoted volunteers have sparked a lifelong love of art for thousands of students and visitors.

Connect with us

Check out the events calendar and sign up for our public programs, family programs, or teen programs enewsletters.

K–12 educators can sign up for our enewsletter or connect with us on Facebook. Contact us at (312) 443-3719 or email [email protected] for questions about student tours, educator resources, teacher programs, or for a consultation.

Resources

Discover more about the museum’s collections and exhibitions at Research and Resources; access the museum’s library and archives; and search the Educator Resource Finder to find K–12 curriculum materials.

Educators of all grade levels and disciplines can visit the Crown Family Educator Resource Center in the Ryan Learning Center to take advantage of this reference library and workspace.

Visit Families for social stories and information to help your family plan and anticipate a general museum visit.

Department History

What is now known as the Department of Learning and Public Engagement has been organized in many ways over the years in response to evolving museum priorities, community dynamics, and the professionalization of the museum education field.

Department of Museum Instruction (1913)
Department of Extension (1916–1937)
Department of Membership and Extension Lecturer’s Department (1938–1954)
Children’s Museum (1926–1940)
Gallery of Art Interpretation (1940–1955)
Department of Museum Education (1934–2016)
Department of Learning and Public Engagement (2017–present)

Chicago’s public school teachers received free admission to the museum from the day the museum opened. Programs were so well attended that by 1907 one-third of all Chicago public school teachers had attended courses or brought students on visits to the museum. Programs for adults were equally robust, and in 1897 the museum received a gift to build the lecture and concert space that is known as Fullerton Hall. In 1901 one of the museum’s first endowment gifts established the Scammon Lectures for students and the adult public. In these early years the museum also went outside of its walls, holding exhibitions from the collection and related programming in Chicago Park District field houses, something it would again attempt in 1935.

Building on its early commitment to K–12 teachers and students, in the early 20th century the museum, public schools, and the Chicago Public Art School Society—an organization founded by Ellen Gates Starr and which eventually became known as Art Resources in Teaching—formed the Art Institute’s earliest and most enduring art education partnership. Thanks to this partnership thousands of children had access to art in their classrooms and in the museum. These efforts set the stage for a foundational gift received in 1924: through the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Fund the museum started to offer children’s programs outside of the school day. The founding of the Children’s Museum in 1926 soon followed, complete with exhibitions, tours, and other programs.

The 1933–34 Century of Progress propelled interest in adult art education in Chicago. At this time various museum functions became integrated for the first time under the department of Museum Education. The museum’s Director Daniel Catton Rich declared in 1938 that education should be “at the core rather than the fringe of a museum program.” Soon after, he reorganized the Children’s Museum into the Gallery of Art Interpretation and appointed Katherine Kuh as its curator. Kuh revolutionized museum practice internationally devising unconventional and highly accessible ways for adult viewers to learn how to look at modern art.

Volunteerism surged in the United States in the postwar period, including increased commitment towards arts, community, and education causes, especially among women. In this context, the Art Institute’s Woman’s Board was established in 1952. From the start it focused on making the museum more accessible and responsive to Chicagoland residents. It launched Community Associates in 1953, an association of community-based Art Institute groups designed to offer art education opportunities for people in Chicago’s growing suburbs, and especially middle-class women. The Woman’s Board also helped to create the museum’s Docent Program in 1961 with the Junior League of Chicago as a means of revitalizing and expanding programming for children. Soon after, in 1964, the Woman’s Board worked with the museum to realize the Junior Museum, an innovative space that built upon the legacy of the Children’s Museum and set the precedent for two subsequent iterations of our multimodal learning spaces—the Kraft Education Center (1993) and the Ryan Learning Center (2009).

The department continued to evolve and professionalize, increasing its staff and formalizing its functions, including the establishment of Family Programs division in 1981 and of education internships in 1987, and the growth of a range of programs for adults. In the 1990s, the Art Institute launched a series of community engagement initiatives to further expand the museum’s relevance and reach. With support from the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Fund and the Pew Charitable Trust, the museum took a series of actions specifically designed to engage more African American families, individuals, and school groups with the museum and to do so by establishing a process for creating ongoing connections between these audiences and the museum, thus establishing the museum’s Leadership Advisory Committee. Additional efforts in the 1990s focused on driving family participation and sustaining the museum’s significant efforts with schools through teacher programs, student tours, school partnerships, and educational resources as well as expanded partnerships with city agencies such as the Chicago Public Library.

Since 2017, other major initiatives have further expanded access and equitable participation, in addition to core school, family, youth, community, and public programs. The museum began to offer free admission to teens from Chicago under 18 years of age thanks to the generosity of Glenn and Claire Swogger and the Redbud Foundation and launched a major curricular collaboration focused on museum education with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Graduate Division, and, in collaboration with multiple other departments, secured major funding from the Ford Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation for a multi-year initiative designed to transform internship processes and experiences at the Art Institute in order to increase equity and access and eventually diversify art museum leadership. Programs with living artists, including performances and participatory events that are in dialogue with the unique spaces, exhibitions, and collections of the museum, are also now hallmarks of our public offerings, foregrounding the museum as a generative site.

All of these changes led in 2017 to the renaming of the department to Learning and Public Engagement in order to better reflect its purview, diversity of audiences, and leadership role.

Underpinning the evolution of the museum’s educational work is a vital and consistent vision: To be a museum that actively opens access and spurs meaningful engagement with works of art by a wide range of people, while simultaneously, enacting our identity as a museum of Chicago, carrying out our work much beyond our walls by partnering with organizations, public agencies, and communities across the broad Chicago region. Hallmarks of the Art Institute’s educational work include community engagement initiatives and partnerships, K–12 school programs, groundbreaking interpretive spaces, family programs and resources, and programs that foster youth leadership and creative development within the context of an encyclopedic museum.

Learn more about the department’s history from 1897–2003 in this issue of Museum Studies (2003).

OOO STUDY WITH US, Voronezh (TIN 3666249885), details, extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, address, mail, website, telephone, financial indicators

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LTD LEARN WITH US, address: Voronezh region, Voronezh, Moskovsky avenue, 114 apt. 42 was registered on 09/01/2020. The organization was assigned TIN 3666249885, PSRN 1203600026772, KPP 366601001. The main activity is the provision of consulting and information services, in total 10 types of activities are registered under OKVED. There are no connections with other companies.
Number of co-owners (according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities): 2, General Director - Savinova Natalya Viktorovna. The size of the authorized capital is 20,000 rubles.
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Learn with us, learn like us, learn better than us!

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After a portion of such information, I want to fall on my knees and pray for a long, long time to the wisdom, ingenuity and humor of the Creator, whoever he is.

And any neighborhood bad-kaka, such as pressure on oil, causes moderate sympathy for the misery of its authors ...

If you have time, I strongly recommend that you read it, and friend the original magazine itself.

Original taken from batrachospermum in Batrachospermum No. 16(78) - Zombie Parasitism!

Cabbage butterfly caterpillar ( Pieris brassicae ) greedily perforates the cabbage leaf of our favorite head, but we are not angry with it, but we sympathize. This caterpillar, of course, is a pest, but in this case it is also a victim: several dozen eggs of the parasitic wasp Cotesia glomerata sit inside it, and the food absorbed by the caterpillar goes not so much to maintain its vital activity, but to develop these vile eggs.
Time passes, and larvae hatch from them, and when they grow up a little, they paralyze their living house and gnaw their way out. They do not need to kill the caterpillar - its body will still be useful to them, therefore, so that it does not expire with liquids, parasitic larvae carefully fold its hemolymph and, upon leaving the body, patch up the exit holes with pieces of their own tissues.
When the caterpillar regains the ability to move, the larvae are already cocooning themselves, so she helps them finish by wrapping an extra layer of silk over the cluster of cocoons. As if the larvae are her children, whom she “gave birth”, a kind of “daughter-mother” for a butterfly cub. And of course, you can’t leave the “rodnul” to the mercy of fate - the caterpillar climbs onto the parasitic offspring and protects it from enemies, swaying back and forth like a zombie...

This video shows what is described above. See also flash video here, very nice.

The ladybug seems to be an even more reliable guard: spotted elytra warn that the offender will have big problems in case of an attack, and if it doesn’t come - on you, bastard, bitter hemolymph in the mouth! Riders Dinocampus coccinellae consider North American ladybugs Coleomegilla maculata to be the most reliable "roof". The larva, which hatches from a single egg laid in a ladybug by a female parasite, feeds on its entrails, and three weeks later, when it decides to pupate itself, it crawls out of the beetle through a gap in the exoskeleton and weaves a cocoon between its legs. The body of the ladybug is already free from the parasite, but she is in no hurry to fly to heaven for bread - she covers the cocoon with her powerful body, and not a single aggressor will dare to disturb the rest of the parasitic chrysalis under the protection of a dangerous beetle, especially when it jerks its paws. A week later, an adult rider emerges from the cocoon and flies away, and his ex-bodyguard in most cases quietly dies with a sense of accomplishment (Maure et al., 2011).

But, of course, there is no smell of "duty" here. No prudent creature will voluntarily nurture and protect its parasites, ready to bring the owner to the grave at the first need. It smells like zombies in here. When a female rider plunges her ovipositor into a ladybug or cabbage caterpillar, she simultaneously injects a dose of chemicals that enslave the victim's nervous system at the same time as she lays her eggs. It would seem that outwardly nothing changes: the caterpillar still gnaws cabbage leaves, and the ladybug preys on aphids. But the personality has already been lost - the insects have been turned into soulless walking incubators, providing food for the parasitic offspring inside their bodies. And this is surprisingly widespread in the animal kingdom, from insects and spiders to fish and mammals.

The owner is ill

Unfortunate zombies provide protection to parasites in many ways. Someone is “hired” as a guard, and, for example, a bumblebee carrying a fly larva in the fall buries itself to death in the soil, where the parasitic chrysalis is relatively warm in winter and predators are not afraid. In the rainforests of Costa Rica, the spider Anelosimus octavius  suddenly changes the architecture of the web: instead of the usual weaving of threads, a platform appears, and above it a compacted rain canopy is an ideal refuge for the larva of a parasitic wasp, so far living inside its zombie body. Having created this masterpiece of arthropod architecture, the spider dies on the spot, and the larva that emerges from it wraps itself in a cocoon at the edge of the platform and hangs down through a special hole previously made in the platform by a caring spider (Eberhard, 2010).

Spider Leucauge argyra with a wasp larva Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga on the abdomen and a poor modification of the web, which it builds under the influence of the parasite.

Another Costa Rican spider, Leucauge argyra , carries the parasitic egg on its abdomen, and then the larva, which clings to it like an ominous knapsack and sucks its juices for a week or two. Then the strengthened larva forces the spider to break its trapping web and build a new one, which you can’t even call a network: just two intersecting thick web threads. For this simple work, the larva rewards the worker by sucking him to the end, sending him to the next world. After that, she weaves a cocoon for herself, hanging from the crosshairs of the threads and practically out of reach for predators.

Sometimes, in order to survive to the next stage of development, the parasite needs to fine-tune the behavior of the host. Malarial plasmodium first develops in mosquitoes, then in humans. But here's the bad luck: the mosquito feeds on blood and is forced to circle around the tasty primate, which does not worry much about the fate of the plasmodium sitting in the insect and at any moment can exclude both from the further struggle for survival with a deft movement of the hand. To reduce this risk, the Plasmodium, while developing in the mosquito, forces the host to curb its appetites. An infected mosquito is modest, not so actively looking for people at night and does not suck blood for a very long time, and if it cannot find an endlessly spraying fountain of eternal blood, then it will not particularly persist in the search. That's when the plasmodium matures to move into a person, then it reprograms the mosquito in the opposite direction, and it becomes desperate and insatiable, relentlessly bites people in all places several times, even if it is already full of blood and is about to burst. If you slam it now - it's not a big deal, the plasmodium has already managed to get inside you, prepare a thermometer.

The house cricket ( Acheta domesticus ) feeds on dead insects and picks up a hairy larva Paragordius varius that grows inside it, and then causes the cricket to make a suicidal jump into a pond where the adult hairy is going through.

In the case of Plasmodium, there is a modification of the normal behavior of the host, but often in order to move to another stage, it is necessary to change its behavior radically. For example, carp-toothed fish usually prefer to stay away from the surface of the water, where birds are waiting for them. However, if they become infested with fluke flatworms, they are drawn to the surface water like a magnet, and they suddenly take pleasure in circling nonchalantly there, gleaming with their silvery scales. It is not surprising that such fish fall into the beaks of birds more often than healthy ones. And here is a coincidence: it is the birds that serve as hosts for the next stages of trematodes.

The same happens with small crustacean amphipods that have been invaded by trematodes or acanthocephalans. Using amphipods Gammarus as an example, scientists tried to elucidate the mechanism of parasitic zombification (Helluy, 2013). When infected, the immune system tries to cope with the intruder, but the parasite repels its attacks, causing inflammation of the brain. The brain begins to produce huge amounts of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects the transmission of signals between nerve cells. As scientists suggest, the release of serotonin caused by the parasite distorts the signals coming from the eyes to the brain. Gammarus live in a pond and usually, in case of danger, rush to the bottom to hide in the silt. But now the light near the surface is taken for the darkness of the abyss - and the amphipod hurries up, rushes about there until it finds something to attach to, and becomes an easy prey for the bird. The parasite is happy.

Amphipod Hyalella azteca lives in the dark bottom waters of ponds and lakes, but if it bears the larva of the acanthocephalan Pseudocorynosoma constrictum , then obediently swims to the surface, where it becomes food for waterfowl, in the intestines of which the acanthocephalan finally matures. The parasite is colored orange due to pigments drawn from the victim's tissues.

Among the best-known terrestrial zombies is the single-celled parasite Toxoplasma gondii , a relative of the malarial Plasmodium. Thousands of its cysts occupy the brain of an infected rat, releasing an enzyme that enhances the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine (McConkey et al., 2013). As a result, the animal becomes more curious and ceases to be afraid of cat smells. When a rat is finally bitten by a cat, Toxoplasma gets a chance to continue its life cycle in its gastrointestinal tract. In addition, tons of testosterone are produced in male rats under the influence of the parasite. This hormone also reduces fearfulness, but most importantly, it makes males attractive to females, due to which Toxoplasma can be transmitted from rat to rat (Vyas, 2013).

Zombie genes

In 1982, the English biologist Richard Dawkins published the book The Extended Phenotype, in which he laid out the idea that the power of genes is not limited to the body of the containing organism, but can extend beyond it. From the point of view of genes, bodies are nothing more than vehicles that serve to pass them on from generation to generation (Dawkins wrote about this earlier in the book “The Selfish Gene”), so genes try to use the bodies to the maximum, squeeze such behaviors out of them. , which will lead the genes to the greatest evolutionary success. For example, beaver genes, in addition to anatomical traits, determine the brain circuits responsible for building dams. Dams favor the survival of the beaver body, and if a mutation occurs in a gene that causes a beaver to build better dams, then it will be picked up by evolution - such a mutant beaver is more likely to survive and produce many beavers with the same progressive mutation. The morphological features of the dam, as well as the backwater formed by it, are a continuation of the beaver phenotype.

But if genes can manipulate physical objects, why shouldn't they try to control biological ones as well? Parasites, according to Dawkins, are just such an example of the spread of the influence of genes on other living beings. The ability of the parasite to control the behavior of the host is embedded in its genes. If one of them mutates, the puppet's behavior will change. One day, a mutation in one of the ichneumon genes caused the cabbage caterpillar to not run away in fear after parasitic larvae suddenly emerged from it, and died of despair, but remained to guard them - and this mutation spread further in the parasite population, because it provided them with increased survival. The ichneumon phenotype has expanded at the expense of the caterpillar, including a new type of its behavior. In this way, all sorts of interactions between parasites and their zombie victims could arise.

When a spore from the fungus Ophiocordyceps hits an Amazonian ant Dinoponera longipes , it grows through its exoskeleton into the brain and causes it to climb a tree. When the mushroom is ripe, the ant attaches itself to the leaf, the fungus breaks through the body of the insect and explodes, and new spores wake up on other ants as mushroom rain.

Dawkins's book was ahead of its time in many ways. In the 1980s, scientists knew only a few examples of zombie parasitism, and one could only guess at the genetic mechanisms of this nightmare. Works are already appearing that can confirm the hypothesis at the gene level.

Gypsy moth caterpillar ( Lymantria dispar ) greedily perforates the leaf of our beloved birch, but we are not angry with it, but we sympathize. This caterpillar, of course, is a pest, but in this case it is also a victim: viruses Baculovirus reprimens multiply in its cells, and the food absorbed by the caterpillar no longer goes to the production of its tissues, but turns into new hordes of these vile baculoviruses. When they are ready to leave the body of the host, the caterpillar begins to eat without stopping, climbs higher and settles on the bark of a tree or leaf at the top of the crown. Then certain viral genes start a program in the cells of the caterpillar to produce enzymes that turn its body into a viscous slurry. The insect begins to literally rain on the leaves below, spreading viruses. When another unsuspecting caterpillar bites off a piece of such a leaf, the virus will acquire a new body for reproduction.

As it turned out, the command to crawl up the caterpillar is given by the viral gene egt - it encodes an enzyme that destroys the caterpillar hormone, which signals that you need to stop eating and start molting. If earlier the caterpillar ate only at night, and in the morning hid in a crack in the base of the tree, now it has turned into a gluttonous zombie, ready to eat during the daytime, and preferably higher. When scientists switched off this gene from the virus, it still infected caterpillars and multiplied in them, and the victims still turned into rain at the end of life, but they stopped climbing to the top of trees (Hoover et al., 2011). The egt gene shows a lovely example of an "extended phenotype": by manipulating another body, it increases the chances of the baculovirus spreading. But this gene is not alone; the effectiveness of victim control is increased due to the complex work of many genes of the virus.

The cover of the November issue of National Geographic shows a zombified ladybug Coleomegilla maculata guarding the cocoon of parasitic wasp Dinocampus coccinellae .

Returning to the ladybug C. maculata and its hymenopterous parasite D. coccinellae , I would like to note that at the time of egg laying, not only chemicals enter the body of the victim, but also a virus that multiplies in the ovaries of the rider. Presumably, it is he who zombifies the ladybug, turning it into a guard for the rider larva. If this is true, then we have an example of a very skillful puppeteer who included in his phenotype the features of the behavior of two highly developed organisms! The more riders survive, the more viruses we'll end up with, this master manipulator argues. "What tricks!" we marvel at the zombifying parasites, but much more cunning swindlers can hide inside them, secretly controlling their cunning.