Science ponders "zombie attack"

[SymphonicX]

Science ponders 'zombie attack' By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News There has been a revival of the zombie film in recent years If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively. That is the conclusion of a mathematical exercise carried out by researchers in Canada. They say only frequent counter-attacks with increasing force would eradicate the fictional creatures. The scientific paper is published in a book - Infectious Diseases Modelling Research Progress. In books, films, video games and folklore, zombies are undead creatures, able to turn the living into other zombies with a bite. But there is a serious side to the work. In some respects, a zombie "plague" resembles a lethal rapidly-spreading infection. My understanding of zombie biology is that if you manage to decapitate a zombie then it's dead forever Professor Neil Ferguson In their study, the researchers from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University (also in Ottawa) posed a question: If there was to be a battle between zombies and the living, who would win? Professor Robert Smith? (the question mark is part of his surname and not a typographical mistake) and colleagues wrote: "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." On his university web page, the mathematics professor at Ottawa University says the question mark distinguishes him from Robert Smith, lead singer of rock band The Cure. To give the living a fighting chance, the researchers chose "classic" slow-moving zombies as our opponents rather than the nimble, intelligent creatures portrayed in some recent films. "While we are trying to be as broad as possible in modelling zombies - especially as there are many variables - we have decided not to consider these individuals," the researchers said. Back for good? Even so, 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." According to the researchers, the key difference between the zombies and the spread of real infections is that "zombies can come back to life". But they say that their work has parallels with, for example, the spread of ideas. The study has been welcomed by one of the world's leading disease specialists, Professor Neil Ferguson, who is one of the UK government's chief advisors on controlling the spread of swine flu. "The paper considers something that many of us have worried about - particularly in our younger days - of what would be a feasible way of tackling an outbreak of a rapidly spreading zombie infection," said Professor Ferguson, from Imperial College London. However he thinks that some of the assumptions made in the paper might be unduly alarmist. "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," he said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8206280.stm

[Ryan]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8206280.stm And the conclusion is we are doomed

[SymphonicX]

posted this in general interests! Mods - we need a merge!

[MikePizzoff]

So this university is wasting money on a study that has already been determined in film many years ago, and otherwise could more than likely be figured out by most 9-year-olds?

[krakenslayer]

So this university is wasting money on a study that has already been determined in film many years ago, and otherwise could more than likely be figured out by most 9-year-olds? Nah, it's just a semi-humorous chapter in a specialist academic book that uses zombies as a "fun" example in order to illustrate an infection that spreads from person to person. I'm more interested in this: Professor Robert Smith? (the question mark is part of his surname and not a typographical mistake)

[Mike70]

I'm more interested in this: this is buried in the middle of the article: On his university web page, the mathematics professor at Ottawa University says the question mark distinguishes him from Robert Smith, lead singer of rock band The Cure. WTF?

[krakenslayer]

this is buried in the middle of the article: WTF? I wonder if his name is pronounced like a question - Ron Burgundy/teleprompter style.

[sandrock74]

I could take Professor Smith? more seriously if he had just added an "s" to his surname, like Robert Smiths. I don't trust people with stuff like ? or ! in their names.

[bassman]

I could take Professor Smith? more seriously if he had just added an "s" to his surname, like Robert Smiths. I don't trust people with stuff like ? or ! in their names. Have you ever met someone else with a ? or ! in their name?

[Trin]

Did you mean that as a question Bassman? Or is "name?" another word that I'm not familiar with and the question mark is to distinguish it from "name". Am I even asking the right Bassman, or did I ask "Bassman?"?

[krakenslayer]

Did you mean that as a question Bassman? Or is "name?" another word that I'm not familiar with and the question mark is to distinguish it from "name". Am I even asking the right Bassman, or did I ask "Bassman?"?

[EvilNed]

I'll have whatever he's smoking!

[Skippy911sc]

Leave it to the Canadians to come up with a great worthwhile study of something that could be considered of vital importance.

[blind2d]

All this time I could've been walking around with "Murdoc!!!" I'll have to look into that... - Murdoc Hey, hush you! Anyway.... yeah, we alaready knew all this... sometimes scientists... I don't know, man... I'm tired...

[rgc2005]

Seriously, I liked the fact that a serious academic work used slow moving 'Romero' zombies just to give us a fighting chance. FYI, Twitter went nuts with a 'Swine Flu / Zombie' hoax based on this article.