• Question: Is the zombie apocalypse an event that could genuinely happen ?

    Asked by Ellie :) to Ben, Sam, Rose on 22 Jun 2017. This question was also asked by Keely-Beth.
    • Photo: Ben Kenward

      Ben Kenward answered on 22 Jun 2017:

      I guess probably yes (but very unlikely any time soon). I do read a lot of sci-fi so my mind might be a bit too open on this. But, there are actually real examples in animal kingdom of infections that can seriously change an animal’s behaviour. There is a kind of fungus that infects the brains of ants, and makes them stop what they would normally be doing, and just cling to a leaf in good position to get eaten – that helps the parasitic fungus get spread to a new host:

      https://www.livescience.com/47751-zombie-fungus-picky-about-ant-brains.html

      But come to think of it, that’s kind of like an anti-zombie infection. Zombies are supposed to eat people, not try and get eaten…

    • Photo: Sam Carr

      Sam Carr answered on 23 Jun 2017:

      Well Ellie, I remember reading about this and I remember a scientist suggesting that it isn’t completely “impossible” BUT that he didn’t know of any known human virus that would affect humans in a way that would make them into Zombies as we know them (like, in the movies or something). But he also suggested that there’s no reason why such a virus (or something like it) might not evolve in the future…

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