Popular Science weighs in on creating a zombie virus

[Mr. Clean]

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-02/fyi-could-scientists-really-create-zombie-apocalypse-virus



Maybe, but it’s not going to be easy. In West African and Haitian vodou, zombies are humans without a soul, their bodies nothing more than shells controlled by powerful sorcerers. In the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, an army of shambling, slow-witted, cannibalistic corpses reanimated by radiation attack a group of rural Pennsylvanians. We are looking for something a little in between Haiti and Hollywood: an infectious agent that will render its victims half-dead but still-living shells of their former selves.


Also, the dead were reanimated by the comet. I thought it was carrying an Alien Virus not radiation?

[krakenslayer]

It wasn't a comet in NotLD. It was a returning space probe that was irradiated with "a strange form of radiation". Something like x-rays or gamma-rays but different. This may or may not have a direct or indirect causal relationship to the phenomena. It's all very vague.

Viruses are never mentioned in the series, except as an analogy for the spread of infection in Dawn (on the TV broadcasts), it's never seriously suggested as a cause.

[bassman]

[URL]
Also, the dead were reanimated by the comet. I thought it was carrying an Alien Virus not radiation?

In Night there is a mention of the "Venus Probe" bringing radiation back to Earth, but it's not a definite cause. It's only stated as a theory. Although I know some people around here oddly argue it as fact...

Nice article, though. Strange stuff to think about.

EDIT: Kraken beat me to it by one minute. Sorry for the repeat.

[Wyldwraith]

Kinda depressing,
How an interesting thread looped back to the beaten-to-death, resurrected, and beaten to death/resurrected Nth more times etymology of the cause in Night.

[krakenslayer]

Not at all. The thread is open for you to post anything you want in. There's no debate going on here, I was simply reminding Mr Clean that it wasn't a comet/virus that was mentioned in Night and that the article's comment about radiation was at least arguably correct, and bass did the same but his post overlapped with mine. No one is argung the point or even really raising the radiation/cause issue for continuing discussion, until a day later, you come in and tell us off for it. :P

[darth los]

In Night there is a mention of the "Venus Probe" bringing radiation back to Earth, but it's not a definite cause. It's only stated as a theory. Although I know some people around here oddly argue it as fact...

Yes, the news reporter states very clearly that the explanation of the venus probe causing the plague was merely speculation. He ends it with something like, "Could this be responsible for the acts of murder we are now experiencing."

I'm paraphrasing here but I'm sure the "authorities" on the matter will be along to correct me.

:cool:

[krakenslayer]

Yes, the news reporter states very clearly that the explanation of the venus probe causing the plague was merely speculation. He ends it with something like, "Could this be responsible for the acts of murder we are now experiencing."

I'm paraphrasing here but I'm sure the "authorities" on the matter will be along to correct me.

:cool:

^^^
Okay Wildwraith, NOW it has looped into a discussion on the Venus probe. I stand corrected. You weren't wrong, just prophetic. ;) :D

[darth los]

^^^
Okay Wildwraith, NOW it has looped into a discussion on the Venus probe. I stand corrected. You weren't wrong, just prophetic. ;) :D

Well he's the one who brought it up.

Be careful what you wish for.

And and for the record there's no debate. That's what the dude says. :D

:cool:

[blind2d]

Venus probe!!!! But yeah, if Night is Hollywood, then Tony Hawk is the janitor at my old high school...

[sandrock74]

Venus probe!!!! But yeah, if Night is Hollywood, then Tony Hawk is the janitor at my old high school...

Dude, he was so totally the janitor there!

[blind2d]

I know! On the other side of the country from where he has his mansion! And... private lake...

[Darksider18]

there is a scientifically created apocalypse possibility known as Nanotechnology. and there is a biological virus possibility known as Toxoplasmosa Gondii. Search em both up. :).

[AcesandEights]

there is a scientifically created apocalypse possibility known as Nanotechnology

AKA "Gray Goo", right? :)

[Wyldwraith]

If you want to get into Nanotech....
The only real hold-up there is the "2nd Generation Conundrum". Ie: "How do you get a machine as small as we can humanly make it while working on our day-to-day Macro-scale to go on and produce a next generation of machines an entire order of magnitude smaller than the original precursor to the nano-machine we (humans) built?"

The general consensus SO FAR is that the structural engineering of the problem, while not as yet resolved, is only a matter of time. The REAL problem(s) are A) How do you splice networking capability into such a small machine so it can use others of its kind in a collective structure complex enough to either process signal-commands we're sending the little buggers, or to truly network and produce the processing power themselves to develop that elusive 2nd Generation of True Nanites on their own. OR, B) How do you fit mechanisms to receive/transmit signals from us (humans) on such a tiny machine. Because if the machines can't communicate with us and each other, you're never going to get them to do an appreciable amount of work.

Basically, it's a given that it won't be human beings who directly build sub-cellular or (the Holy Grail) sub-atomic nanomachines. Meaning that the smallest machine we CAN build must be able to build something complex enough to either "listen" to us en masse, or to "talk/listen" to each other...and do it while still leaving room for the articulated machinery such machines will need to actually DO anything....and do it all on the scale of a machine working on a machine as much smaller than itself as itself is smaller than the human who made it.

If you can't solve The 2nd Generation Conundrum, nanotech will ever remain a curiosity for the most part.

Which is a shame really, because if humanity does solve the Conundrum, the sky is really the limit on what we could accomplish.

[Exatreides]

I personally think it could be a Prion based disease.