It seems like almost everyone is passably big into zombies these mean solar day , whether that fandom is define to catchingThe walk Deadevery Sunday or actually stockpiling pee , ammo , andMREsinpreparation for a looming apocalypse . Not all zombies in motion-picture show and on TV are make equally , as some are obtuse and dim - witted like inNight of the Living Dead , while others are intelligent and resourceful , like the ones Will Smith battled inI Am Legend . As pervasive as this root is in science fiction , what does skill have to say about the luck of this actually occuring ?

Of of course , there are those who take themselves far too seriously to be entertained by the concept of zombies . However , there are some serious and respected scientists analyzing feature from pop culture zombies and using them to askimportant questionsabout what is and is n’t possible for the human brain and soundbox . The CDC has even cut azombie preparedness design , packed full of ideas to be prepared when the dead start walk . By the strangest darn concurrence , it happens to match the list of what would be useful for other emergencies . However , prepping to pillory some zombies is a mickle more fun than think about enshroud in a basement from a tornado , which is why the CDC stuck with it .

Typically , zombie come about after being taint with a virus . How wide a virus spreads is related to how it is transmitted . A computer virus convey through contact with bodily fluids is much easy to incorporate than one transfer through the atmosphere . This is why the most devastating outbreak of Ebola ( convey through corporeal fluid ) has killed4,877 citizenry during the last 11 months , whereas influenza — which is airborne — kill over250,000 people worldwide each year . If the zombie virus can only be spread through a bite , it would likely be contained before resulting in an Book of Revelation .

However , it ’s important not to moderate intelligence here : the undead zombies seen on the flatware screen will never be a real affair . The brain necessitate to be operational so as to send impulse to the muscles to move , and the fondness also needs to be beating in guild to distribute oxygen and nutrients . With zombi spirit being drained and all , the heart is n’t pumping , the brain is n’t working , and the body is n’t pay off what it needs . Case close ; they ’re stagnant and staying dead .

It might be impossible for zombie to be undead , but what about living beings who possess the same trait ? Steven Scholzman , a prof at Harvard Medical School , tell LiveSciencethat the afflictions of zombies are neurologic , and not a problem with being undead .

Neuroscientists Timothy Verstynen and Bradley Voytek echoed that opinion when they teamed up to make aTED - Ed videoin which they examine a zombie and use physical clues from the patient to diagnose the cause of the symptoms of the lumbering gait , incoherence , thick and nonmeaningful lecture , and insatiable appetence . Each of these trait is similar to known   neurological shape and can be connected to lesions on a specific area of the brain . Though there are n’t any currently - known syndromes that encompass all zombi symptoms , the duo have strike the full term Consciousness Deficit Hypoactivity Disorder to formally account the consideration .

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