Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Beware of Zombies.

I know, I am a scientist and I am writing to inform you about the very real threat of Zombies.

More specifically, what to do if they attack.

I am taking this directly from a real scientific and published article too.

For referencing:
Title: WHEN ZOMBIES ATTACK!: MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF AN OUTBREAK OF ZOMBIE INFECTION
Authors: Philip Munz, Ioan Hudea, Joe Imad, Robert J. Smith? (Note that the "?" at the end of Smith?'s name is real and supposed to be there... That's part of his name.)
Journal: Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress
Editors: J.M. Tchuenche and C. Chiyaka
Pages: 133-150

The paper (Introduction section) starts off by defining the zombie as:

"A zombie is a reanimated human corpse that feeds on living human flesh"

and then proceeds to give us a run-down on their historical concepts and development into what we now know are zombies as:

"slow moving, cannibalistic and undead"

and that once a susceptible human is bitten by a zombie,

"it leaves an open wound. The wound created by the zombie has the zombie’s saliva in and around it. This bodily fluid mixes with the blood, thus infecting the (previously susceptible) individual."

As this article is written by Math guys in Ottawa (Ottawa and Carleton University), there is some pretty convincing looking graphs and mathmatical bits to show that they know what they're talking about. They assess whether quarantine, or finding a cure quickly would work in preventing a zombie take-over... And they don't.

The discussion of this article starts with drawing the conclusion:

"An outbreak of zombies infecting humans is likely to be disastrous, unless extremely aggressive tactics are employed against the undead."

Which I would agree with. Especially the extremely aggressive tactics part.

The article concludes by saying that:

"In summary, a zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilisation, unless it is dealt with quickly. While aggressive quarantine may contain the epidemic, or a cure may lead to coexistence of humans and zombies, the most effective way to contain the rise of the undead is to hit hard and hit often. As seen in the movies, it is imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly, or else we are all in a great deal of trouble."

Lesson learned.

For further reading on this article, please follow the link ZOMBIES.

For further viewing, I would recommend....

Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Knight of the Living Dead
Shaun of the Living Dead (I liked this one alot)


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

HI Mike!!

I thought I'd check your blog to see if you still post...and what a bonus...there you are again!! I love your posts so keep blogging!!! I don't enjoy facebook so I', happy to see you here!!!
~Connie

terance said...

Hey hey Mike I thought that I would check your blog and see how things are. I am very aware of zombies and since I have read Zombie Survival Guide I know how to deal with it.

Tuffysmom said...

Gee..I already knew all that! And, by the way..I loved the Shaun movie.

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