5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen
We found out recently that if you try to leave a little kid in a graveyard late at night, he'll freak out. Even if you offer to leave him a gun to protect himself. Why? It's because on some instinctual level, all humans know it's just a matter of time until the zombies show up.
Our culture is full of tales of the undead walking the Earth, from our religions to our comic books. But, some sort of zombie apocalypse isn't actually possible, right?
Right?
Guys?
Actually, yes. It's quite possible. Here's five ways it could happen, according to science.
#5.
Brain Parasites
As seen in ...
Resident Evil IV
What are they?
Parasites that turn victims into mindless, zombie-like slaves are fairly common in nature. There's one called toxoplasmosa gondii that seems to devote its entire existence to being terrifying.
This bug infects rats, but can only breed inside the intestines of a cat. The parasite knows it needs to get the rat inside the cat (yes, we realize this sounds like the beginning of the most fucked-up Dr. Seuss poem ever) so the parasite takes over the rat's freaking brain, and intentionally makes it scurry toward where the cats hang out. The rat is being programmed to get itself eaten, and it doesn't even know.
Of course, those are just rats, right?
How it can result in zombies:
Hey, did we mention that half the human population on Earth is infected with toxoplasmosa, and don't know it? Hey, maybe you're one of them. Flip a coin.
Oh, also, they've done studies and shown that the infected see a change in their personality and have a higher chance of going batshit insane.
Chances this could cause a zombie apocalypse:
Humans and rats aren't all that different; thats why they use them to test our drugs. All it takes is a more evolved version of toxoplasmosa, one that could to do us what it does to the rats. So, imagine if half the world suddenly had no instinct for self-preservation or rational thought. Even less than they do now, we mean.
If you're comforting yourself with the thought that it may take forever for such a parasite to evolve, you're forgetting about all the biological weapons programs around the world, intentionally weaponizing such bugs. You've got to wonder if the lab workers don't carry out their work under the unwitting command of the toxoplasmosa gondii already in their brains. If you don't want to sleep at night, that is.
You may be protesting that technically these people have never been dead and thus don't fit the dictionary definition of "zombies," but we can assure you that the distinction won't matter a whole lot once these groaning hordes are clawing their way through your windows.
Uness we can come up with a reliable thermo-electric effect. If they can absorb heat, and turn them into work, (which solves the other problem, making a decent capacity battery that small) then it's pretty much next stop: Grey Goo scenario. I find that somehow more frightening than mindless hords trying to kill me. All the horror movies tell me you can shoot zombies. If you shoot grey goo, they eat your bullet, and make more grey goo.
ReplyNanobots make great speculative fiction, but they're unlikely to actually come about due to a little problem called "getting rid of waste heat".
ReplyBut seriosly i noticed personality changes in me a long time ago and it might look more like chainsaw city than zombie apocalypse if i keep geting worse.
Reply...I shouldent have let those dogs and cats lick me and i shouldent have bit them...now they got zombie flu.
ReplyI like to think I would do good in a zombie apocalypse but in reality I'm a smoker that plays MMO's all day, running for my life just doesn't sound all that promising. *Fingers crossed for slow zombies*
ReplyLooks like I need to make a run to the gun shop...
ReplyReading about zombies...scroll down...ad for a brain test. huh.
Replyseems legit
i hate zombies but i for some reason always dress like them for Halloween(im still a kid) .............. wierd =W=
ReplyThat chicken that supposedly ran around for 18 months without a head? I call complete and utter b.s. How would something without a head eat food and drink water? How does it breathe properly? How would it not bleed out?
ReplyThe guy who cut its head of did it badly which left the brain stem in place. He was so impressed, he used a small tube to keep the birds airway open (as it was intact in its neck just missing the nose part ec) and then fed it with a pipette a few times a day.
Dont forget the Borg for that last one... although they might not really considered zombies.
ReplyNah. Evolution would not allow it (as explained by science.) :-)
ReplyZombies don't care about science.
Are you being facetious? Evolution means that the fittest survive. If a zombie plague started and it was fitter than humans it would cause us to die off. Evolution doesn't care about you.
I shouldn't read about zombies before I go to bed...
ReplyI don't get the headshot thing, a zombie will still die by a shot to a key internal organ.
ReplyI think the whole idea is the brain (and maybe the heart) are the only things really necessary to keep it alive. I'm in favor of flame thrower
Yeah, flamethrower. Now you have zombies chasing you that are on fire. Until the burn up that is, since they can't feel the pain.
these are all very interesting. no surprise but im in the process of writing a novel about a zombie apocolypse. and me being a young mother living in a small town, which of these reasons for people turning into zombies be more realistic for my story??
Reply Hide All See All 4 Repliesthey're all about as realistic as the next. But yeah virus, like mutated Rabies would be the one I reckon, but 28 day later has already been done.
I'd go with the mad cow disease, personally.
Turning into zombies for slave labor hasn't really been done since the movie "White Zombie". It might be a nice change to have zombies as the victims rather than aggressors which is the modern model.
Depends,viral zombies or supernatural? If viral I say perhaps some druggie raids a medical center,in his rush to avoid capture he/she perhaps ends up grabbing a vial of a viral sample which was in the process of experimentation for finding the anti virus? meh thats my two cents
are you people real or perhaps infected with some kind of drug for stupidity. I mean how lame are u to be discussing this non existent stuff?
ReplyAbout as lame as you for reading about it; but not quite as lame as you for wasting space to write a comment on how people shouldn't be commenting. Also, this makes you look way stupider than us.
Damned nanobots. Charge up the EMP, Bobby!
ReplyI wouldn't mind being a vampire but I absolutely do NOT want to be a zombie! they stink and they're ugly! if I gotta be somethng other than me I wanna be a pretty blood sucker!!
Reply Hide All See All 3 RepliesFun fact: vampires, in their original descriptions, were ugly and smelled of death. Also, they don't sparkle.
have you ever seen Bram Stoker's Dracula? He was reeeeal pretty...
Lestat didn't sparkle..
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ReplyWhy haven't you considered rabies? The disease can already infect humans... & pretty well zombifies the host.... makes them extremely aggressive, the virus is spread through bites, and they are absent of memories/personality & have no regard for their own personal safety... until they eventually die.. but at that point, had the opportunity to bite & spread the disease to many. though we do currently have a vaccine for rabies... the virus could mutate...especially with the thinning ozone layer... which causes viruses to mutate.
Replygood point, rabies was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of the article.
The thinning ozone layer has little effect on evolution compared to natural selective mechanisms.
I never understand why most zombies are only half eaten. Surely they consume all the meat on their prey until its just bones, and when the bones tries to rise up and walk, it cant.
ReplyUnless the zombie virus spreads quickly into the meat they're eating, and once the meat is fully infected they lose their appetite?
many different zombie types out there, and this article highlights that virus infected rage zombies being different to undead zombies etc. and yes I am guessing by most zombie lore that flesh eaters are only interested in fresh meet, so death and infection makes them look for a new meal. As in most zombie movies infections, real life infections spread at different speeds with different people.
And then you have night of the living dead Zombies, where they're only interested in eating brains to ease the pain of being dead so flesh is not the target (although the zombies seem to bite into the flesh as well as the head and some victims reappear later as zombies with head intact.)
It would not make sense for a creature to consume itself until it died; if it did it would not be very long for the world. Parasites don't kill their hosts until they've transmitted.