Angry Zombies

Fit like there students, help yourself to a cup of tea and let’s get into today’s ZomBlog.

I’m preparing our new public lecture, Zombie Science: Brain of the Dead, for it’s debut at the London Horror Festival. In this lecture I’ll be delving into the Zombie brain. Today I thought I’d share some insights into a part of the brain called the amygdala, and what its role is in Zombieism.

The amygdala lies deep within the brain and is about the size of an almond. It plays a key role in the display and control of aggression.

During a study involving monkeys, their amygdalae were stimulated electrically. This led to an increase in aggression. The fact that monkeys react angrily to having their brains electrocuted isn't exactly a revelation, but us scientists have to pass the time somehow.

The size of the amygdala is known to correlate with how aggressive a species is. If a male is castrated, the amygdala can shrink by up to 30 percent. This may offer one method of calming down male Zombies, but, as opposed to the head, usually offers a smaller target.

I'm personally uncomfortable just looking at this tool, never mind attempting to use it on a Zombie

A reason that Zombieism may want to manipulate this area, and cause increased aggression, is to help it spread.

Recent research suggests that parasites often take up residence in the amygdala. The parasite, toxoplasma causes the disease, Toxoplasmosis. Its preferred host is a cat however if it infects a mouse or rat, it changes their behaviour to make them attracted to cat odours. This will increase their chance of being eaten by a cat thus placing the parasite in the host it desires.

Unless of course the mouse has a basic understanding of explosives

In a similar way Zombieism could twist the amygdalae to do its bidding by altering Zombie behaviour, making Zombies more likely to bite, and therefore improving the odds the disease will be transferred.

Zombies biting is a bit of a ‘three for the price of one’ bonus. It’s how they breed, feed, and make us humans take heed.

Find out more about the undead brain by joining me on the 28th & 29th of October 2013 for the brand new lecture Zombie Science: Brain of the Dead at the London Horror Festival, find out more here, and book your tickets by calling 020 7482 4857. The lecture is part of a 3 year project supported by a Society Award from the Wellcome Trust.

Don’t forget, if you have a question you’d like me to answer here in the ZomBlog why not leave it as a comment below? Or visit our Book of Faces and ask your question there.

When it comes to the science of Zombies we’ve got it covered, or at the very least, we can make it sound like we do.

Keep up the good work my students,

Doctor Austin

Doctor Austin ZITS BSz MSz DPep, is a Theoretical Zombiologist and Head of the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland UK.

Zombies - Sick Zombies

Greetings Zombiology Students and a hearty welcome to the ZomBlog.

Today’s question came in from John, he asked ‘can Zombies get sick?’

Regular readers will know that our version of Zombies here at the Institute are based on genuine science, rather than fiction. So there are many differences between our idea of a Zombie and those you might encounter on the silver screen.

Presently it is not possible to have a dead body that acts as though it were living. Our current theories dictate that Zombies are not undead but they are human beings who are suffering from a disease. Therefore they will still have beating hearts, a need to eat, breathe and expel waste. The Zombie disease will cause them to be very aggressive, eating continually (controversially not just human flesh - but anything), walk with unsteady shambling movements, and communicate only through a deathly moan. Whatever causes this disease, be it a virus, bacterium, or prion disease, it will be a serious, horrific illness.

The cat based meme is also a strong contender. 

But as John asks, could Zombies get sick?

All of us have a guardian against getting ill, our immune system. The immune system is our defender from infectious invaders. Through something called an immune response, the immune system attacks organisms and substances that enter our body to try and damage our vital systems or cause disease.

The immune system, as portrayed by a terrifying drawing.

A network of cells, tissues and organs make up the immune system. The important cells are the white blood cells, also known as leukocytes. They come in two basic types; phagocytes, which, much like a Zombie, chew up invading organisms, and lymphocytes, cells that allow the body to remember and recognize previous invaders and help the body destroy them.

When foreign substances enter our body (called antigens), many cells work together to spot them, and try to get rid of them. They do this by triggering the creation of antibodies, special proteins that lock on to the invaders. Once they’ve been created, they stay in the body, ready to strike again should the disease return. This is why once you get sick with something like chicken pox it is unlikely you’ll get ill from it again.

There are diseases that can affect the immune system. One of the most well known is HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infection / AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). This disease gradually destroys the immune system. Without any defence the body is vulnerable to a multitude of organisms which can easily cause life threatening infections in AIDS patients.

Whatever is causing Zombieism it will be a very invasive disease and is likely to weaken the immune system. On top of this a Zombie’s diet is unlikely to be balanced. They are simply eating anything and everything they can. It is doubtful they’ll be garnishing all the required nutrients that help the body fight off germs. Poor hygiene will also play a role. After all I seriously doubt that a Zombie will take the time to wash its hands after eating or going to the bathroom (if indeed they go to a bathroom, they probably go wherever and whenever they want).

I believe they call this a 'mercy flush'.

Combining all these factors together and a Zombie is going to be an easy target for every illness out there. So the answer to John’s question, can Zombies get sick, has got to be a firm yes. Not only can they get sick, they’re at much greater risk than the rest of us. Hence biological warfare may offer a defence against the apocalypse. But here at the Zombie Institute we always recommend trying to help treat and cure Zombies, rather than trying to kill them! Always remember that Zombies are people too.

If you have a question about the undead please get in touch with me in the comments section below, and don’t forget to visit our Book of Faces (www.facebook.com/zombiescience). I’m ready, waiting, and willing to answer your questions right here on the ZomBlog.

Stay safe students,

Doctor Austin

Doctor Austin ZITS BSz MSz DPep, is a Theoretical Zombiologist and Head of the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland UK.

Getting a Zombie grip, and maybe a rip

Bottom of Form

Good day Zombiology Students,

The recent exciting series of the Walking Dead has inspired my students to ask a lot of new zombie questions.

Andrew, an excellent student of mine, asked me this, ‘Are zombies able to tear into someone’s guts with their bare hands? We all know they like to use their teeth but can say Granny Z (that is a zombie with no teeth) uses its hands to tear us into swallow-able pieces? We have already seen zombies have no self-preservation instinct so assuming no atrophy or other degradation of the muscle mass should we not be conscious of the fact that zombies will bring a greater strength to bear as they will not care about injuring themselves? Something any human is capable of (imagine pre-zombie granny Z lifting a car off her grandchild) under particular circumstances’.

I hope the answer is no, but I have my doubts.

Let’s start with the first part, can a human being tear apart another human being bare handed? Well yes, yes they can. As recently as October 2011 a man in Italy tore out his own eyeballs during a Church sermon, and in 2006 a man in the USA lifted a 3,000 pound car to free an injured cyclist. With practice most of us could tear a phone book in half, even if I myself have never managed it.

Success! I can't wait to call my friends, what are there numbers? Oh.

But a person suffering from our proposed Zombieism Prion Disease would be very unsteady on their feet, and have poor control over their limbs. Also, because Zombieism would be a new form of prion disease, it may incorporate the symptoms and characteristics of other current prion diseases. For example Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), causes amongst other things, extreme weight loss. Although it affects animals at present CWD could develop into part of the new Zombieism Prion Disease. So there is a good chance Zombieism would reduce a person’s strength considerably.

With regard to self-preservation amongst zombies, we certainly see that symptom in the movies, with zombies happily walking through rotor blades on the off chance of getting a snack. In our studies we have concluded that real life zombies would feel pain. The condition congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), which prevents sufferers feeling the signal of pain, is something one is born with. It cannot be caught like a cold. This condition is the closest comparable one we’ve found to that fictional zombie symptom. CIP is very rare, with only around 100 cases in the USA, so we can bet a real zombie is very unlikely to have that symptom.

No stinkin' helicopter rotor is getting between me and my brunch.

However we know that Zombieism causes a lot of damage to the brain. One area of the brain, the amygdala, is responsible for our instincts. Shaped like an almond, and buried deep with the temporal lobes, it produces much of not only our instincts, but our base emotions as well. If Zombieism caused damage to this area, it may produce a zombie that was overcome with instinct, so much so it may show disregard for pain, even if it was feeling it.

Finally let’s go back to those events, like Andrew’s ‘Granny lifting a car idea’, where people show moments of almost super human strength. In a dangerous situation the human body goes through some interesting changes.

I'll either lift that car, or shoot it off. 

In the brain, the hypothalamus activates, sending a chemical signal adrenal glands. These glands produce adrenalin, which is to the human body, what spinach is to Popeye. When fuelled by adrenalin our muscles are able to contract more. This suddenly gives us the ability to perform actions, like lifting a car, actions we normally couldn’t have managed. Some believe that most of time we only use a small proportion of our strength. When under threat we simply gain the ability to expand on what we already have. But these fits of strength are short lived. Within a few minutes of happening the body begins to return to a more normal state.

It’s a lot like those friends of Captain America, the Six American Warriors, who were given a less refined version of the super solider serum. It gave them Cap’s powers but only for a short time. Inevitably these newly found super powers would give out during a pivotal moment in the plot. On the bright side they do always return during final battles.

The Six American Warriors, well, em, I can name one...

To conclude; zombies do have the potential to tear a human apart. Like humans, when faced with a dangerous situation they may also receive an adrenalin rush, giving them a short burst of enhanced strength. However the Zombieism disease would be badly affecting their ability to move both legs & arms, and may be causing wasting of the body. So they may lack comparable strength to a healthy human.

Ultimately zombies are like fingerprints, each one is different. And just like fingerprints they inevitably end up all over your glass door. No zombie would have the exact same presentation of the disease as another, so some may be more akin to human, and others more akin to demons.

I just washed these you inconsiderate fiends! 

Thank you Andrew for a great question, and if any of you out there want to know anything about the real science behind zombies, do get in touch on info@zombiescience.co.uk.

Best wishes,

Doctor Austin

Doctor Austin ZITS BSz MSz DPep, is a Theoretical Zombiologist and Head of the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland UK.  

For even more Zombie Science pick up the official Zombie Science book on Amazon now. 

A Tale of Two Zombies

Hello Zombiology Students,

We recently received two interesting questions from you Zombiology fans and decided to share them in today’s ZomBlog.

The first is from Vicki who emailed asking ‘would it be possible for zombies to be made from a natural mutation of a dual-infection? My idea is that the fer-de-lance snake and a vampire bat causing rabies, both in Panama, could both infect someone, possibly mutate and cause a zombie apocalypse.’

The Bothrops atrox aka fer-de-lance, is a venomous snake, ‘regarded as the most dangerous snake in the Panamanian jungles, chiefly because it is the commonest of the vipers’ (Elton 1999). The snake bite releases venom which contains a substance called a haemotoxin.  In the human body this kills red blood cells, stops blood clots forming and can cause tissue damage.    

Fig 47# Fer-de-lance (with snake)

Vampire bats can refer to three species of bat whose diet consists of blood. Contrary to popular belief they do not suck blood through their teeth, but rather create a wound and lap the blood up. As with all bats they have the possibility of transmitting Rabies, however in reality only a small percentage of the population carry it.

Fig 420# The Vampire Bat (aha ha, gosh I pee'd a little there)

Now we know some basics let’s turn to our resident viral expert, Dr. Katie White for more details, ‘the damage caused by fer-de-lance snake bite isn’t caused by an infection.  Infections are caused by the presence or growth of a biological agent (e.g. bacteria, virus) within the host body.  As an infectious agent grows and multiplies within the host body, the host can then pass on the infection to other people/animals.  The snake venom is not an infectious agent, so the host won’t start producing more of the toxin and won’t have enough inside them to pass it on to anyone else. The snake bite won’t pass on any genes to the host, so there is no genetic material to mutate or combine with that of the Rabies virus.  

As it affects the brain, the Rabies virus does cause some zombie like symptoms and yes it could possibly mutate to cause a more zombie like disease.  However, the Rabies virus is only really transferred between animals and people through bites, as infected hosts produce the Rabies virus in their saliva.  A zombie would have to produce a very large amount of saliva to infect a town’s water supply at a high enough level to actually cause disease.  The Rabies virus normally enters the body through the wound caused by the bite and then it travels along the nervous system to the brain.  If it was drunk in water instead, the virus would probably be destroyed in the stomach and would have no way of actually reaching the nervous system and brain.’

We would advise that any zombies found drooling in your local dam be guided away, and of course never share a drink with a zombie.

No matter how tempting it may be...

Our ZITS colleague Dr. Kevin O’Dell, a senior lecturer in Genetics at the University of Glasgow, kindly explained more about virus mutation, ‘any virus can and does mutate. Usually this leads to a mutant virus that doesn't function at all so doesn't infect and doesn't replicate. Very occasionally a mutation makes a virus more virulent (more infective). The snake venom would only make this more likely if it actively damaged virus DNA, but as Katie says, it doesn't.

If the snake bite occurs first and causes tissue damage then you might be able to argue that a subsequent bite by a zombie bat is more likely to happen as (a) the previously damaged host may not be able to run away as fast so is an easier target and/or (b) a zombie bat may be able to actively detect a compromised host (although I’m not 100% that they have that ability).’

Dr. Kevin O'Dell, he puts the 'S' in 'Necrosis'

Of course you’d have to be having a really bad day to be both bitten by a fer-de-lance snake and a vampire bat in short succession. Or for the optimists out there, a really lucky day, as apparently you are more likely to be struck by lightning than bitten by a fer-de-lance.

So to conclude Vicki, it would seem your theory of dual-infection, whilst creative, is thankfully a long way from causing the zombie apocalypse.

Our next question came from Lydia who asked, ‘could you please answer a zombie conundrum me and some zombie enthusiast friends are having over the Walking Dead TV series. In Season One we see the policeman dude and his new pals in the city covering themselves with blood and guts so that the walkers wouldn't sniff them out. And yet, one of my eagle eyed friends noticed they didn't do that when hiding under the cars from the zombie swarm in Season Two - the zombies never got so much as a whiff of them. And yet the redneck dude covered up the other dude who cut his arm in dead bodies so that the walkers wouldn't smell his blood. So what's that all about? Is this a TV continuity error? And could zombies really smell us living folk? Do they smell us if we are cut; like sharks can 'smell' blood? What's going on?’

 I feel I should start by pointing out that the Walking Dead zombie disease is very different from the condition we investigate in our research. Certain aspects, like being ‘undead’ are not possible at present, and having continual decomposition of skin and organs, would be a lot different than they portray. Regular visitors will know that I love the Walking Dead in its many formats but at the end of the day it is fictional, and so shouldn’t be criticised for its scientific inaccuracies.

My ex-wife used to say this all the time

However your smell question is still a good one, and I will endeavour to give you an answer all the same.

Those who have attended my lectures or read my book will know I believe a new type of prion disease, similar to Mad Cow Disease (vCJD), may be responsible for delivering Zombieism in the future. This type of disease occurs when our natural prion protein (PrP) is forced to change shape by a Rogue form, possibly by ingesting the Rogue through an infected food source, as occurred with cow meat and vCJD (note; this is not the only way to get a Prion disease). Scientists are still unclear as to what function the normal PrP has in our bodies. Many studies to determine an answer have involved mice who had this PrP gene removed or ‘knocked out’. Recent work has shown that mice without the gene perform badly in smell tests, failing to find hidden cookies, amongst other things. Therefore it is likely a Prion diseased zombie would have a poor sense of smell.

If we took the Walking Dead zombies as being real (ignoring the obvious inaccuracies) I would say that they would also have a poor sense of smell and restricted sight. If their bodies are decomposing their eyes would too, getting worse over time. The same would apply to their sense of smell. This means that in Season One using camouflage should work, depending on how long the zombies around them have been decomposing. Any recently turned zombie would have better senses compared with a longer term sufferer. In Season Two, what might be happening is an example of the disease giving rise to low zombie intelligence. Some of them may smell blood or humans, but are not smart enough to think to look beneath a car to find one.  

     

With regard to sharks, they smell around 10,000 times better than humans. A zombie, due to being gradually reduced in operating capacity by the disease, is definitely going to have a worse sense of smell than you or I, or a shark.

But if it's a zombie shark... oh dear

Double oh dear if it's a zombie land shark (although I don't know if I believe Google Images on this one...)

Finally, on the question of TV continuity, it is worth noting that Frank Darabont was the showrunner during Season One, and was replaced by Glen Mazzara for Season Two. You can read various reasons for this online, and I daren’t wade into the debate.

   

Ultimately I think we should all take something from Ron Moore’s First Law when creating the show Battlestar Galactica. When describing questions people asked about the real science of its content he advised taking the mantra, ‘it’s just a show, I should really just relax’. 

We do hope you are both satisfied with your answers. If you want to know anything further, or someone else has a question, do get in touch on info@zombiescience.co.uk.

Very best wishes,

Doctor Austin

Doctor Austin ZITS BSz MSz DPep, is a Theoretical Zombiologist and Head of the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland UK.  

For even more Zombie Science pick up the official Zombie Science book on Amazon now. 

Bibliography 

Elton, N. (1999, September 27). The Venomous Snakes of Panama from http://www.czbrats.com/Facts/snakes.htm