Given my and DelawareDem’s love of The Walking Dead, I had to post this. This is for you, DD!
A team of Cornell University researchers has determined the best place to hide during a zombie apocalypse.
A graduate statistical mechanics class was inspired by a reading of “World War Z,” a fictional oral history of a zombie war, and decided to explore what might happen in an actual zombie outbreak, reported Phys.org.
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He said most films or books assume that a zombie outbreak would affect all areas at the same time, leaving a small pocket of survivors after a few months.
“But in our attempt to model zombies somewhat realistically, it doesn’t seem like this is how it would actually go down,” Alemi said.
Cities would fall quickly, the researchers found, but it would take weeks or even months for zombies to penetrate less densely populated areas.
“Given the dynamics of the disease, once the zombies invade more sparsely populated areas, the whole outbreak slows down,” Alemi said. “There are fewer humans to bite, so you start creating zombies at a slower rate.”
“I’d love to see a fictional account where most of New York City falls in a day, but upstate New York has a month or so to prepare,” he added.
I’d love to see that fictional account, too! It’s one of the things I think about when watching The Walking Dead – Where should they go? I thought the prison made sense, but, alas, nothing good ever lasts on this show (I knew the farm was toast!). I mentioned yesterday that it’s referred to as <i>Misery Porn</i> and that’s extremely accurate. There must be something wrong with me loving this depressing, gory show – a show that portrays humans as the real threat and zombies as simply an obstacle. What does it say when the rustling in the bushes turns out to be a zombie, instead of a human, and everyone sighs with relief?
Mr. Pandora joined the series late, so we’ve been watching the first two seasons so he can catch up. Wow! Re-watching this series reminded me how far we’ve come. Those hopeful, trusting people no longer exist – actually most of them really no longer exist!
So, where did this study say to go to escape the zombie outbreak? The northern Rocky Mountains – altho, the zombies should get there eventually.
I have a zombie question. Will the zombie outbreak eventually die out due to the zombies’ decomposing bodies? Humor me on this. Thanks.
Using zombies as a way to demonstrate the spread of disease, especially in the age of anti-vaxxers, is quite clever.
“A lot of modern research can be off-putting for people because the techniques are complicated and the systems or models studied lack a strong connection to everyday experiences,” he said. “Not that zombies are an everyday occurrence, but most people can wrap their ‘braains’ around them.”
Which, when you think about it, is a sad statement. People understand zombies, but not measles or polio.