Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The idea that fungi, bacteria, viruses, etc. invade much more complex organisms and force them to do their bidding is not new but the extent of the control they can exert is just now beginning to be revealed.
For a good discussion of one method by which an organism invades another to create something new see this article - though perhaps the title of it needs to be altered slightly to read "how endosymbosis is changing life on earth".
But for a really interesting read about one life form hijacking another see this story about zombie ants. Hat tip www.MycoRant.com.
And what does this have to do with mass torts? 1) Again, there's increasing evidence of a paradigm shift in the thinking about causes of cancer and a number of infectious disease processes are being associated with cancers seen in toxic tort cases; and, 2) infectious disease, maybe including those that decades later result in cancer, may soon be among the most massive of mass torts.
