Scientists Reveal How a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen

A horde of feral creatures  tears through the street. They might look human, but they no longer have  the brain capacity to do anything but consume. God help you if you find yourself in their path. No, it’s not the latest  toilet paper hoarding frenzy, it’s the zombie apocalypse - and  it might not be entirely fiction. Could the zombie apocalypse actually  happen? Possibly - in more ways than one. These are the potential undead outbreaks  scientists are keeping their eyes on. Surprisingly, some

people believe zombies  actually walk among us - and have for hundreds of years. The origin of the concept dates back to  Haitian folklore, where the dead are resurrected by dark magic. A necromancer uses potions and  rituals to revive a corpse, but what comes back isn’t entirely human. It may have full physical  function, but something in its soul stays behind. This usually creates a zombie who is lacking  the ability to make complex decisions, but can complete simple tasks when instructed  - m

aking it the perfect slave for a sinister witch doctor looking for some free labor. These  zombies can often be kept in this unfortunate stasis for the length of their natural life,  but the spell can be broken if they are not given the proper substances to keep them  in their stupor. And when they’re awoken, they often don’t remember anything of their time  as a zombie - even if they’ve been missing years. But is this only folklore? It was believed to be an odd tale from traditional  Voodoo rel

igion, but during the US occupation of Haiti, they were surprised to discover that  people were actually reporting to know residents who were turned into zombies! People would show  up after being missing for years, and would claim they had been enslaved by witch doctors  with only fitful memories of the missing time. Scientists looked into these claims and found a  possible explanation for this - right down to the supposed return from the dead. These people might  have been given a powerful neu

rotoxin that would have paralyzed them completely and slowed their  body functions to the point of appearing dead, followed by the application of the toxin  Datura stramonium. Derived from Jimsonweed, this can cause long-term disorientation  that would leave someone in a fugue state and highly suggestible - leaving  them in a zombie-like state. Could this create a zombie plague? In a word…no. While this is one of the only cases  known of actual zombie-like behavior in humans, it might be the lea

st terrifying prospect. For  one thing, there are no detailed case studies of this behavior long-term, just stories  of it happening in the past. Many of the case studies have been doubted by scientists  who think it couldn’t be sustained long-term. If these chemicals were applied effectively, it  would only take one missed dose for the person to start regaining their full mental faculties - and  a slight overdose of the toxic jimsonweed extract could kill. These cases aren’t the  precursor to a

zombie apocalypse, they’re a case of kidnapping and enslavement.  More importantly, they’re not contagious in any way. If someone under the effects of  Datura stramonium bit an unaffected person, all that might happen is a nasty infection  from the bacteria in a person’s mouth. But outside of the human world,  more threatening cases await. Fungi. They take many forms, like mushrooms that  grow on trees - and make for a tasty topping on pizza! But in the fungal kingdom, a surprising  number of t

hem are parasitic - and some display a disturbing ability to affect other organisms.  That’s the case for Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, an insect-pathogenic fungus that spreads  itself in a disturbing fashion. And it has a particular target - the ants crawling  along the canopies of tropical forests. They crawl through the trees, except when  the tree gaps become impossible to cross and they head down to the forest floor.  That’s where this sinister fungus is waiting, spreading its spores. They a

ttach to the  exoskeleton of the ant and start growing there, using enzymes to weaken the exoskeleton and  allow them to take root in the ant’s body. And once they work their way in, that’s  when the transformation truly begins. Because the fungus doesn’t just affect  the ant’s body - it affects their brain. The fungus’ yeast spreads through the ant’s body  and starts generating compounds that affect the ant’s behavior, starting with causing it to have  seizure-like convulsions that knock it fro

m its usual perch down to the forest floor. And there  it stays, because it now has one function - to spread the fungus growing off its body. When the  ant is about to reach the end of its life cycle, it will attach itself to a leaf with its mandibles  and die there, spreading the fungal spores from the massive growth on its head. This creates a  morbid garden of dead ants to infect the entire population of ants in the area. And as the  ant dies, the fungus continues to grow until the area is co

vered in a large growth of fungus.  In between four to ten days, the ant transforms from a creature with its own mind to one solely  devoted to propagating another species’ survival. This has led scientists to give these  creatures a disturbing nickname - zombie ants. But could they jump species to bigger targets? While the idea of a fungal infection targeting our  brains is terrifying, the odds of them breaking that species barrier are limited. For one thing,  the fungus is designed to target s

mall animals with an exoskeleton, and if they jumped species  it would likely be to a larger insect or spider. Humans don’t have an exoskeleton, they have bones  - which are much harder to break through. While humans do have some weak, unprotected points like  our eyes, there’s another element that protects us from a fungal zombie infection like this - we  can notice and react to weird things happening to our body much easier than ants can. If we see  a weird fungal infection coming out of our b

ody, we’ll either pull it off or go see a doctor.  So the odds are that even if a fungus did start affecting humans, it would never be able to  transform any of us into mind-controlled zombies. Assuming no one decided they liked their  new mushroom hat and just let it grow. But some species more terrifying than  fungi are using the same tactics. Pretty much everyone hates wasps, from those  nasty yellow jackets that haunt every summer picnic to the terrifying “Murder Hornets”  of Japan. But smal

ler creatures have far more reason to fear them, because many wasps  have a truly disturbing method of reproducing. They lay their eggs inside a still-living  creature, usually a large insect or a spider, and the eggs hatch inside and eat the creature  from the inside out. Usually, the wasp uses its venom to paralyze the creature before  laying the eggs and just uses it as a cocoon, but one wasp named Zatypota percontatoria  may have taken this tactic to the next level. It has the same sting and

ovipositor that  its larger and more dangerous counterparts does, but it doesn’t render the host completely  paralyzed while the larvae are gestating. Instead, it might do something worse. It mostly targets small spiders, usually younger  ones. But as the larvae grow inside the spider’s body, something unusual happens. The spider may  be aware of the creatures growing within it, but it finds itself unable to affect or remove  them. As the growth of the larva advances, the spider will even build

a cocoon to immobilize  itself while the larva emerges and consumes its host. The initial thought was that the  wasp was directly affecting the brain of the spider - which would be a terrifying prospect -  but now scientists believe it’s more likely the larva exudes hormones that guide the behavior of  the spider in a certain direction. Until the end, the spider doesn’t behave in ways that  are completely atypical for the species, but instead seems to be mutually  protecting itself and the wasp

. Of course, there’s only going to be one survivor  at the end - exactly the way the wasp wants it. But is this deadly wasp a threat to humans? Zatypota percontatoria is a much smaller wasp  than the ones that attack humans, but there are wasps that pose serious threats to large animals.  The Asian Giant Hornet even has the nickname “Yak Killer” because a swarm of them can kill a massive  animal with their stings - and they do kill dozens of humans a year. But these attacks are usually  defensiv

e, seeking to drive humans away from them. No wasp has ever tried to parasitize a human  for the same reason no fungi has ever made a go of that big game. If a wasp injected a human  with its eggs, the human would likely go to the doctor and get them removed. And even if hormones  were affecting their behavior to make them want to protect their carry-on, the odds are another  person would notice and get them some help. That’s why the species that do lay their eggs in humans  - like the bot fly -

mostly do surface-level infections and hope that the person just doesn’t  notice. So no wasp zombies coming any time soon. But is a far deadlier threat  lurking under our noses? Plants. They make our yard beautiful, and  they make for a lot of work pulling weeds. But these leafy organisms are the backbone of the  global ecosystem - and that makes them uniquely vulnerable to parasites. A bacteria known as  phytoplasma has been affecting plants since it was discovered in the 1600s, but at first t

hey  were assumed to be plant viruses. They create fast-spreading blight, abnormal plant  growth, and odd growths that seem to have one purpose - spreading the bacteria  further. The bacteria starts in plants, spreads through insects, and moves back to plants  once they’re pollinated by exposed insects. Some of the signs include yellow leaves and  growths that attract insects, but otherwise the plants just seem to continue existing just fine  regardless of the bacteria parasitizing them. But the

truth goes deeper. These bacteria literally rewire  the morphology of a plant, switching it from growing flowers that  would help it to spread healthy plants to growing the odd leafy growths that spread the  bacteria. While plants lack any brain function, this bacteria manages to get deep down into the  base components of the plan and permanently change its core function. This is considered dangerous  to the health of the plant, but it doesn’t have all negative consequences for those who cultiv

ate  plants - the bushy appearance of infected plants can actually be desirable for those breeding  certain plants because they can then produce more flowers. But in the wild, these bacteria  spread fast and furious - turning every plant they infect into a puppet of their spread and every  insect that touches them into a disease vector. But could this affect humans  and create a zombie apocalypse? This is probably the most dangerous case yet,  because unlike parasitic wasps and fungi, humans are

just as vulnerable to bacteria  as anything else. Countless diseases start from bacteria and devastate populations. But if  this bacteria started using humans as a vector, it’s not likely to turn us into zombies the way  it does to plants. That’s because we lack the tools it needs to spread - and any change  where it makes people start growing plant growths is the stuff of science fiction.  What it could do is hitch a ride on us and use us to spread the way it does to insects  - but it doesn’t

use the insects in any way besides being an insect-shaped bus. So if this  bacteria infected us, the odds are we wouldn’t even know it - and the only ones who need  to be worried about phytoplasmas are plants. But at least none of these have  made the jump to mammals…right? Parasites are everywhere - as any pet owner  knows when they have to give their beloved Fido or Fluffy their dewormer medicine. Your cat  may have just turned into a furry buzzsaw as soon as you uncapped the pills, but at lea

st they’re  not infected with a zombie parasite, right? Well, probably - but a parasite making the rounds is  actually displaying the terrifying ability to puppet the largest animals yet. Toxoplasma  gondii isn’t some new parasite that’s just making its way into the population, it’s a widely  spread parasite common in developing countries, and it’s estimated that as many as fifty  percent of the global population may have been exposed. But the good news is,  it’s not too serious - in most cases.

It can cause flu-like symptoms, but most  humans who get infected might not even know it. What’s scary about it is that it can infect  almost any warm-blooded animal - including pets. But it’s the interaction with two common  animals that gives it a disturbing x-factor. While Toxoplasma gondii can infect almost any  mammal, its sexual reproduction needs much more specific conditions - it can only reproduce in  the digestive tract of a domestic cat. It doesn’t affect the cat much, but how it get

s there is  what’s terrifying. When it infects mice, it has an unusual effect that is unlike anything else it  does - it affects the mouse brains, reducing their sense of anxiety and self-preservation. Infected  mice are less likely to hide when confronted by danger, and more likely to explore risky areas.  This puts them at greater risk of getting eaten by - you guessed it, cats, who now have the  infected mouse meat in their digestive tract. The heavier the parasitic load in the mice,  the mor

e they’re affected. This microscopic parasite does everything short of making the mice  deposit themselves directly in the cat’s mouth. Could it do the same to humans? Unlike the previous four zombie apocalypse  candidates, Toxoplasma gondii has one scary advantage - it’s already able to infect humans and  it’s already shown the ability to affect mammal brain chemistry. We share a lot of common DNA with  mice, and it’s not hard to make humans do risky things - as every episode of a popular TV st

unt  show indicates. Parasites can mutate quite easily, especially with fast reproduction, but the odds of  this particular parasite mutating are slim to none for one reason - targeting humans doesn’t make  sense for its life cycle. With the parasite only being able to reproduce inside cats, it only makes  sense to evolve to target something that cats eat. Birds and other small rodents might be at risk,  but Fluffy probably can’t eat you - even if they seem like they’d like to every time  you’re

three minutes late with dinner. But one potential zombie plague  creator is already among us. It’s one of the most terrifying diseases in the  world - Mad Cow Disease. Unlike most diseases, its not a virus or bacteria - it’s a prion disease  that affects the other prions in the brain, causing them all to mutate in the same way.  Its effects are terrible - memory problems, behavior changes, clumsiness, visions,  and eventually blindness, dementia, coma, and death. The disease is mysterious,  deg

enerative, untreatable, and invariably fatal. While a small number of cases are  inherited or caused by genetic factors, it became infamous in the 1990s when  it spread due to contaminated beef. One bite of a bad hamburger could kick-start  someone’s slow decline - and before the end, things could get terrible, not just for  the victim, but for the people around them. And many people say it reminds  them of something terrifying. Most zombie films have a standard type of  zombie - slow, shambling

, and decomposing. They usually want brains…braaaaaaaains. But  a movie series starting with 28 Days Later introduced us to a different kind of zombie. They  were fast, smart - and still technically alive. They were infected with a “Rage virus” that made  them viciously attack anyone they encountered, and the virus could spread rapidly through  contact, including biting. While there were no actual undead zombies in the movie, the world that  resulted looked a lot like a zombie apocalypse. And th

e origin was a released Chimpanzee carrying  a pathogen that jumped to humans. While it was all fiction, it was more scientific than most zombie  outbreak plots - and many people pointed out that this origin sounded a lot like how Mad  Cow disease made its way into the population. Could it turn into something deadlier? Mad Cow Disease, also known as Variant  Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, is already pretty deadly - invariably killing anyone it infects over  a period of years. It’s also highly contag

ious, being spread not just through contact with  tainted beef but through blood transfusions and potentially even donated sperm. It can also  be contracted through eating squirrel brains, so sorry to anyone who appreciates that  delicacy. What it doesn’t have right now is the active desire to spread - the slow decline  of victims usually incapacitates them and makes it unlikely they’ll actively spread it after  being diagnosed. But a mutation could make it faster-acting and make victims display

more  aggressive behavior. It’s no surprise that governments around the world are determined to  keep a lid on this horrible disease - with the disease staying dormant for years, it’s hard  to tell if anyone is a carrier, and countries like Finland even ban British residents  during the 90s from donating blood for life. But buried deep in the Arctic might  be the start of a horror movie… The year was 2000, when scientists were exploring  ancient ice in the Siberian permafrost. This area has not

defrosted for tens of thousands of years,  and provides a rare time capsule into a world long gone. But when a sample taken from a riverbank was  exposed to some test amoebas, scientists noticed something disturbing - the amoebas were rapidly  dying off. A series of tests revealed that the permafrost contained a virus - but not just any  virus. It was the largest virus humans had ever discovered, a creature named Pithovirus  that measured a whopping 1500 nanometers. Looking vaguely like a honey

comb when examined,  it was unlike any virus in the modern day - and it was active and killing its target like no time had  passed since it was frozen. Unlike most viruses, it could easily be seen under a microscope, and  it contained as many as five hundred unique genes. Each of those ripe for a possible mutation. Already deadly viruses, like  the ones that cause HIV, only contain about twelve genes. While  this virus doesn’t infect humans, that’s only for lack of opportunity - it  may have evo

lved in a time before humans, and developed to target small single-celled  organisms. Naturally, humans responded to this in the sensible way - throwing the samples back into  the permafrost and backing slowly away from the resurrected virus that had been waiting thirty  thousand years, right? Not so much. The French scientists who discovered Pithovirus have been  examining it since and testing its interactions with its targets to figure out how it’s most  likely to affect people in the modern d

ay. The good news is, it’s purely  a relic of the past, right? Not so much - a modern species of the same genus  was found in 2016, and studies indicate it has very similar DNA to its ancient counterpart. The  good news is, this indicates this giant virus is not likely to evolve to target humans in any way -  it has a very specific spot in the food chain, and humans couldn’t be further away from amoebas. But  what worries scientists about the Pithovirus isn’t this specific virus - it’s that viru

ses from tens  of thousands of years ago are still hanging around in the permafrost. Could something down there be  more likely to affect humans? Entirely possible, although there’s no current evidence of any  virus that would create a zombie apocalypse. Scientists are advocating caution when  possibly disturbing these frozen organisms. Good thing the ice is staying right where it  is - hey, why is it feeling so hot lately? But scientists might not just uncover the source  of a zombie plague - t

hey might create it. The human body is incredible at regenerating  itself. If you cut yourself, there’ll be a fresh layer of skin over it in a week. A broken bone  will knit itself together after a few months in a cast. But there are some areas that cause a little  more problems - namely anything in the nervous system. While the process of neurogenesis - the  generation of new neurons - does happen naturally, the body is incapable of healing certain  injuries. A person who breaks their neck migh

t be in a wheelchair for life, while  someone who hits their head in the wrong way might never wake up from a coma. This has been  one of the last frontiers in medicine - curing brain and spinal cord injuries through  triggering the body to regenerate. The key to this might be stem cells - cells that  can adapt to become any other type of cell. When applied in the right way, they might  be able to regenerate dead nerve cells. But can they rewire the brain itself? So far, this is very much in the

realm  of science fiction - but scientists have been trying to figure out how to beat death for  decades. Cryogenics research has been ongoing, with thousands of people volunteering to have  their bodies frozen in hope of being awoken at a later date when science has developed the  means to resuscitate them. The problem is, no one knows what kind of damage the freezing  process has done to either the body or the brain tissue - which is why any resurrection  attempt would require some additional

help. That’s where stem cells come in, as some…less  than ethical scientists have proposed using this treatment to reverse brain death  or experiment with the already deceased. After all, these cells can regenerate dead  cells in other parts of the body - what about the most complicated machine  the human body has ever reproduced? What would happen? That’s the scary part. The human brain is still a mystery in many ways,  and one tiny thing going wrong can result in an entirely different person.

Regenerating new  tissue in the brain might essentially do a factory reset on the person, creating someone  highly suggestible. The result could make for a high-tech modern version of the people who are  under the effect of a toxin in the rumored Haitian zombie plague. Could this be a great way for an  unethical mad scientist to create compliant labor? Possibly. Could it create a zombie  plague? There’s no evidence of that, because there is no pathogen the  “Zombie” would want to spread and it’

s unlikely someone in this situation  would have the higher brain function to attack anyone. This scenario is the most far-off in  the future, as research into neurogenesis is focusing more on reversing short-term damage at  the moment - but be careful what you wish for. Because the most deadly scenario for a zombie  apocalypse could be developing as we speak. Technology is getting smaller all the  time. Remember when a cell phone was a big, bulky thing that barely fit in your pocket? Now a  sma

rtphone is basically a thin sheet that shatters if you drop it. The same is happening to robots  - at a much smaller scale. Nanorobotics is a fast-developing field that creates tiny  machines that are roughly a nanometer. So what could one of these do? Not much - but a  whole lot of them could make a big difference. These devices are mostly in the research and  development phase right now, but the basic theory is that they could all be programmed  with the same function from a central point, the

n released in the thousands or millions to  tackle a task. Each one would attack a certain point, but together the cloud of them would have  a huge effect. This could be used to repair damage in areas where it’s not easy for humans to  go, like outer space or deep in the ocean. Or even the human body. These microscopic robots could be used to perform  minimally invasive surgery if programmed right, or even perform long-range repair while staying  in the body. But some experiments scientists are

doing are much more worrisome. Designs are in  the works for nanobots to not just repair things, but to build more of their own system -  essentially becoming self-replicating. But scientists weren’t satisfied with designing  the self-replicating smart robots too tiny for anyone to see - they’re trying to see how  they can be fused with living organisms. Scientists at the University of Nebraska  experimented on integrating a silicone chip into a virus, and discovered that the  virus died - but t

he mechanical component still kept it running as a humidity  gauge for a month after its death. That’s right - the University of Nebraska  successfully created a zombie virus. What could go wrong? Is this going to create a zombie outbreak now? No - the nanobot wasn’t programmed to  reproduce and its function was limited. But that won’t always be the case. One of the  areas scientists are most interested in is using nanobots to potentially repair brain tissue  - neurogenesis with a cybernetic twi

st. To do this job, the nanobots would need to be able to  self-replicate. So in a few years, there could be people with self-replicating intelligent robots  in their brains, rewiring their brain chemistry. A central computer would be regulating their  function- unless something went horribly wrong. Because if the nanobots went off their  designated function and wanted to spread, who knows what they would be capable of. So  while the origin of zombies may have started in Haitian folklore, it may

be headed somewhere  much different - the technology of the future. Are you prepared for the worst? Check  out “Could You Survive A Zombie Attack?”, or watch “Why Did Scientists Create Zombie  Dogs” for more disturbing tales of the undead.