[Shane Green via facebook]

Shane Green via facebook asked the Naked Scientists:
   
Mine is a kind of science/medicine question.

I've been watching a lot of Zombie films lately. I want to know if there is any kind of virus known to man which could people to seek only the physiological need for food, and resort to cannibalis...m to satisfy that need?

What do you think?

[LeeE]

Zombies are not real and do not exist.

[Geezer]

Zombies are not real and do not exist.

Not anymore perhaps. But they did exist once upon a time

Correction. It seems they still do exist!

[RD]

The story of the infectious disease Kuru in the Fore tribe does combine cannibalism, (including the zombie favourite eating brains), and individuals becoming uncoordinated and mentally impaired (zombie like).
So the sufferers did look like stereotypical Hollywood zombies and got that way by eating infected human brains.

[LeeE]

Zombies are reanimated corpses and there are no known viruses capable of killing someone and then reanimating their dead body.  Another key feature of zombies is that, due to being dead, they have no will or desires of their own and will not actively seek anything for themselves, so instead of looking for brains/food, they'd just sit in front of the TV and decay.  Both of these two features are critical to the definition of a zombie, for a true zombie is reanimated by a magician who then, because the zombie has no will of their own, is able to control the zombie.

Therefore, anyone/thing who/that is not dead, and displays an independent desire or need for absolutely anything at all, such as brains/food, is not a zombie.

Hollywood must take most of the blame for the misunderstandings, as usual,

Of course, this is not to say that zombie-like characteristics and behaviour are unknown amongst the living, especially when they're watching TV.

[tangoblue]

It doesn't make you come back from the dead but rage (a real poison) makes you go compleatly mad and you want to kill everyone.  28 days later has people infected with rage but it is a real like chemical! guess who invented it? The us army. No surprise there huh.

Supppsedly, the nazis made a zombie at one point but killed it as they thaught it to be too dangerous.  Personallly, I don't belive it.

[LeeE]

The idea of a 'Rage' drug or poison sounds too much like an urban/contemporary myth/legend.

[RD]

It doesn't make you come back from the dead but rage (a real poison) makes you go compleatly mad and you want to kill everyone. ... it is a real like chemical! guess who invented it? The us army. .

The US army have done some crazy stuff ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Men_who_stare_at_goats

but a administering a drug which caused its troops to go into a homicidal rage, would be shooting themselves in the foot,
 (or any other body part).

[tangoblue]

Rage is in gas form. the us army created it to drop it on enemy camps (from planes) so that the enemies would kill each other, thus, saving the army the bother of having to send soldiers in.
They eventually decided not to use it as it was a little to sick, even for the us army.

[LeeE]

They eventually decided not to use it as it was a little to sick, even for the us army.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!

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[tangoblue]

Wow, found that a little amusing then LeeE?

[Geezer]

Looks like he might have spilled a mug of hot tea in his lap.

[JP]

LeeE's got the rage!

[tangoblue]

Lol..... um i mean, what a shame, how terrible.

[Boogie]

What better day to resurect this thread back to life than Halloween day?

Okay, so what about the fungus that was discovered to turn ants into zombies? Is there any chance this fungus could evolve to take control over human brains?

Ant zombification begins when an Ophiocordyceps fungus shoots spores onto an insect. The parasitic fungus gradually takes over the ant's brain and directs the insect to a cool, moist location. The fungus then kills the ant, and fruiting bodies erupt from the ant's head and spread more spores.

Link : http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120504-zombie-ant-fungus-science-environment-rainforest/

Could it be that democrats and republicans are actually two different fungus colonies? Just kidding (I think).

[janesi87]

Personally, Zombies are created in the imagination of film producers so i don't believe Zombie. But if you believe it, you also can trust that viruts are transfered through saliva from a Zombie to a normal people

[Boogie]

That's good to know.

Note to self : Don't swap spit with zombies!

[evan_au]

There is a neurotoxin extracted from pufferfish called tetrodotoxin, which can paralyse voluntary muscles and make a person appear dead, even though they are fully conscious. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrodotoxin

This could be called the "living dead".

There are suggestions that people involved in Haiti voodoo rituals may have been fed a concoction including pufferfish extract - but one imagines that the mortality rate would have been rather high (the "dead dead").

Interestingly, pufferfish is considered a deilicacy in Japan (or perhaps an extreme sport). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pufferfish#Poisoning 

[yuenjanson]

You watch too much fiction...

[majorminor]

  Another key feature of zombies is that, due to being dead, they have no will or desires of their own and will not actively seek anything for themselves, so instead of looking for brains/food, they'd just sit in front of the TV and decay.   

Helpppp  I am at least half zombie.

That zombie ant stuff is scary. With the parasitic wasp's larvae growing in spiders  and organisms that can control their hosts- it makes for scary world and frightening possibilities.  Getting my crossbow ready just in case.