Ben Neuman, a professor of virology at the University of Reading, told Yahoo! There are more viruses out there than we will probably ever discover and I bet that somewhere out there in nature something like this is happening.
So are we really just one parasitic evolution away from a real life The Walking Dead? Probably not, but then again, who would have ever thought there would be a virus that would completely shut down the NBA?
Facebook Twitter Reddit Flipboard. All it would take is a disease that destroys the brain's ability to absorb that one chemical and suddenly it's a real-world 28 Days Later. So, imagine such an evolved disease, which we'll call Super Mad Cow or, Madder Cow getting a foothold through the food supply. Say this disease spreads through blood-on-blood contact, or saliva-on-blood contact. Now you have a Rage-type virus that can be transmitted with a bite. You know all that conversy out there about stem cell research?
Well, the whole thing with stem cells is that they can basically be used to re-generate dead cells. Particularly of interest to zombologists like ourselves is neurogenesis , the method by which they can re-grow dead brain tissue. How it can result in zombies: You wanted the undead to make an appearance in this article?
Well, here you go, you creepy bastards. Science can pretty much save you from anything but brain death; they can swap out organs but when the brain turns to mush, you're gone. Well, not for long. They're already able to re-grow the brains of comatose head trauma patients until they wake up and walk around again.
Couple that with the new ability to keep a dead body in a state of suspended animation so that it can be brought back to life later, and soon we'll be able to bring back the dead, as long as we get to them quickly enough. That sounds great, right? Well, this lab dedicated to "reanimation research" yes, that's what they call it explains how the process of "reanimating" a person creates a problem.
It causes the brain to die off from the outside in. The outside being the cortex, the nice part of you that makes humans human. That just leaves the part that controls basic motor function and primitive instincts behind. Reanimation research artist's rendering. You don't need the cortex to survive; all you need is the stem and you'll still be able to mindlessly walk and eat and enjoy Grey's Anatomy.
This is how chickens can keep walking around after they've been beheaded including one case where the chicken lived for 18 months without a head. So, you take a brain dead patient, use these techniques to re-grow the brain stem, and you now have a mindless body shambling around, no thoughts and no personality, nothing but a cloud of base instincts and impulses.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we like to call a real, live, undead fucking zombie. So there. Chances this could cause a zombie apocalypse: Think about it. Under every legal system in the world, all rights and responsibilities are terminated at death. All it takes is someone with resources and a need for a mindless workforce of totally obedient slave labor.
How long until somebody tries this? We're betting somebody in the world, maybe North Korea , will have a working zombie by Christmas. Nanobots are a technology that science apparently engineered to make you terrified of the future. We're talking about microscopic, self-replicating robots that can invisbily build--or destroy--anything. Vast sums of money are being poured into nanotechnology.
Sure, at some level scientists know nanobots will destroy mankind. They just can't resist seeing how it happens. How it can result in zombies: Scientists have already created a nano-cyborg , by fusing a tiny silicone chip to a virus. The first thing they found out is these cyborgs can still operate for up to a month after the death of the host.
Notice how nano scientists went right for zombification, even at this early stage. They know where the horror is. According to studies , within a decade they'll have nanobots that can crawl inside your brain and set up neural connections to replace damaged ones. That's right; the nanobots will be able to rewire your thoughts. What could possibly go wrong?
In fact, the high number of domesticated species in the Old World versus the paucity of domesticated species in the Americas is the reason that the population of the Americas was devastated by human-compatible infectious diseases from the Old World during the Columbian Exchange whereas nothing similar happened to the population of the Old World because of human-compatible infectious diseases from the Americas. On a final note, even if a zombie outbreak happened in real life, it is doubtful that it would lead to the end of the world as we know it.
In part, this is because developed countries have strong institutions in place to stop the spread of infectious diseases, as shown by the recent example of the ebola outbreak that took a horrible toll on a number of developing countries but showed no such results in their developed counterparts.
If there is anything that is common to zombie outbreaks, it is that the responsible pathogen is very, very lethal because zombies are almost always very, very dumb. Garrett by trade is a personal finance freelance writer and journalist. With over 10 years experience he's covered businesses, CEOs, and investments.
However he does like to take on other topics involving some of his personal interests like automobiles, future technologies, and anything else that could change the world. You must be logged in to post a comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
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