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07 December 2010

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Zombie vs Human Contest

 

Two universities have concluded through mathematical modelling that the Undead would beat humans in combat

 

The 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead (below) put the popular, modern face to zombies as dumb, brutal creatures with a taste for human flesh and brains.

 

According to howstuffworks.com zombies are “relentless and oblivious to pain, and they continue to attack even after losing limbs. Usually, anyone the zombies kill returns as a zombie, so they quickly evolve from a nuisance to a plague.”

 

What if Zombies were Real?

Researchers at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University (also in Ottawa) decided to run a mathematical model to see what might happen in a conflict between zombies and humans.

 

The researchers published the results of their work in a 2009 book – Infectious Diseases Modelling Research Progress. It turns out to be bad news for humans.

The researchers wrote that, “We model a zombie attack using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies.

 

“We introduce a basic model for zombie infection and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions.”

 

BBC News (August 2009) reported on the study and wrote that “their analysis revealed that a strategy of capturing or curing the zombies would only put off the inevitable.

 

“In their scientific paper, the authors conclude that humanity’s only hope is to ‘hit them [the undead] hard and hit them often.’

 

“They added: “It’s imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly or else...we are all in a great deal of trouble.”

 

Mathematical Model

could Help in Combatting Pandemics

Perhaps with a wary eye on future grant applications, the study team says there is a serious side to the work.

 

In some respects, a zombie “plague” might be similar to a disease pandemic. The computer model they developed for their zombie project could be adapted to show how unfamiliar diseases spread through human populations.

 

The Daily Telegraph quotes co-author of the study Joe Imad as saying “If you look at it in a more realistic way, zombies are about the same as any other major infectious disease, they get out and we try to eliminate them.

 

“Modelling zombies would be the same as modelling swine flu, with some differences for sure, but it is much more interesting to read.”

 

The last word goes to infectious disease expert Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London. He told the BBC: “My understanding of zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it’s dead forever. So perhaps they are being a little over-pessimistic when they conclude that zombies might take over a city in three or four days.”

 

Image credit

Bryan Gosline

 

Sources

“How Zombies Work.” Tracy V. Wilson, How Stuff Works.

“Science Ponders ‘Zombie Attack.’ ” Pallab Ghosh, BBC News, August 18, 2009.

“Zombies would most likely Wipe out Humanity if they really Existed Claim Scientists.” Richard Alleyne, The Telegraph, August 18, 2009.

 

© Canada and the World, December 2010

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HAITIAN TRADITION

 

The idea of zombies comes out of voodoo, the Caribbean spiritual belief system that is particularly strong in Haiti. In his 1988 book Passage of Darkness - The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie, Wade Davis writes that Haitians believe that zombies are revived by a sorcerer who robs them of their free will. The sorcerer uses a powder which is a powerful neurotoxin that causes the undead to go into a state of hibernation.

Zombie Studies