From television films, you already know everything to the smallest detail. Human existence turns into a daily struggle for survival. We'll have to stock up on water, food, medicines and weapons. And in this case, revolvers and rifles will never be superfluous. If people want to survive, they must run away from densely populated areas. Ideally, you need to find a secret bunker that protects against the invasion of a wandering and always hungry horde. Legions of zombies are expanding their ranks at a cosmic pace. They hunt for any person they meet on the path of a destroyed civilization. This is how television projects describe the zombie apocalypse.

Fortunately for us, from a biological point of view, the invasion of infected evil spirits on the planet is impossible, and here's why.

1. Weather conditions: hell

In the conditions of tropical latitudes in the month of August, unbearable stuffiness sets in. On the other hand, January in northern latitudes can pass for a freezer. Staying outdoors without protection in extreme conditions is simply not realistic. The unforgiving weather of the Earth worsens the conditions for the existence of rotting flesh. High heat and humidity promote the reproduction of insects and bacteria. The hot desert air will turn zombies into husks in a few hours. In winter, even the slightest blow will cause the skeletal system of the walking dead to completely collapse under its own weight. And we haven't even mentioned ultraviolet radiation, hurricanes, heavy rains with hail and snowstorms!

2. Central nervous system: failure

Our organisms are complex mechanisms, where each system is interconnected with each other. Muscles, tendons, skeleton and internal organs are controlled by the brain. When one element of a well-functioning system fails, everything goes wrong. In real life, a person runs the risk of being practically immobilized. This fact makes puzzling numerous stories about modern zombies that can move at the speed of a meteor, even if they lose half their flesh. They move in spite of everything, they are not embarrassed by the lack of brains, broken bones, atrophied muscles, rotting internal organs. Well, since many on-screen zombies suffer from extensive craniocerebral wounds, their central nervous system must be completely paralyzed.

3. Immunity: none

Viruses, fungi and bacteria have plagued mankind since the beginning of the world. They shorten our lifespan and make us miserable. Recently, the world has become aware of its most dangerous biological enemies: smallpox and HIV. Only the immune system makes us stay afloat and resist the onslaught of microscopic invaders. People with weakened immune systems inevitably face problems. Zombies are completely immune, so any bacteria that get inside them will be instantly eaten from the inside.

4. Metabolism: Crisis

Humans consume food, so they convert chemical energy into activity. This is how we live and breathe. Metabolism supports these processes. This term is all-encompassing, it covers all the chemical reactions that take place in the body. In theory, zombies feed on human brains, because they also need to function somehow. Only there is one problem: these creatures are not alive, which is why they do not have any metabolic capabilities. Therefore, if zombies do not have metabolic processes, they will not be able to transform tasty brains into energy.

5. Predatory flocks of vultures: a real threat

In nature, there are too many vultures and animals that eat carrion - hyenas, wolves, bears, coyotes, foxes and packs of vicious feral dogs. If the zombie apocalypse came, the surviving people would be afraid not only of walking monsters, but also of hungry wild predators. Even small animals rats, raccoons and opossums will be happy to go hunting. They only fear healthy people. But as soon as they smell the carrion, they immediately rush to the attack. So what awaits the walking dead when meeting with vultures? The answer suggests itself.

6. Sensory Organs Failed

Sight, taste, touch, hearing, smell - all the senses are the key to our survival. Without these five possibilities, a person will roam the world, consume poisonous plants, beat their heads against doorways, spill boiling water on their bodies. But since the zombies are in a constant process of decay, it is not clear how they manage to remain sighted and perform any of the vital actions in order to feast on human brains. When the process of decay starts, the eyes immediately suffer. The collapsed soft tissue would have left the zombies blind. Then the eardrums are deformed. How can a deaf and blind monster prey on its victims?

7. Spread of the virus: in doubt

Nature has developed some terrifying ways for germs to spread. Take, for example, bird flu or measles, which is spread through coughs and sneezes. 90 percent of people who come into contact with an infected person become ill. But how do the walking dead spread the infection? Everything that we are shown in horror films is completely ineffective. Somehow, the corpse must grab the person and then deliver a stinging bite. Well, if the creature is missing some limbs, this is too cruel a proposal. In order to overtake and bite the victim, it is necessary to expend enormous energy. And, as we already know, zombies have no internal resources. And finally: do you really think that a healthy vigilant person will not be able to cope with a decaying corpse with close physical contact? Cold-blooded and slow zombies will always lose in a fight with warm-blooded "brothers".

8 Wounds Never Heal

Before the invention of antibiotics, simple abrasions and cuts could be fatal for a person. If dirt and microbes penetrated the cut, they instantly spread into the internal tissues. But now we know well what personal hygiene and first aid are. We are familiar with soap, iodine and brilliant green. In addition, our tissues have a unique ability to regenerate and restore. Fortunately, these possibilities are completely closed to zombies. Their wounds, no matter how deep they are, never heal. Imagine what will happen to a sheet of paper from which a piece is cut off every day. Sooner or later it won't.

9 Digestive System: Gaping Holes

The human stomach is a muscular bag that can be filled with approximately 850 grams of food and drink at one meal. Of course, if you eat more on a regular basis, you can stretch this internal organ. Now imagine what will happen to the stomach of a monster that is ready to stuff itself with human brains without a break. In addition, if some systems do not function in zombies, then food can simply fall into nowhere. The gaping holes along the route of the esophagus - intestines will take care of this. Well, what will happen if undigested lunch begins to accumulate in the intestines? Imagine yourself.

10. Teeth: worn out

Tooth enamel is the hardest substance in our bodies. This tough shell helps us chew our food. But without proper dental care, teeth quickly deteriorate. Zombies never brush their teeth, their gums rot, and enamel cracks quickly turn into holes. No one will put dentures on them. In the end, the effort to bite seems completely pointless. Only in films, the teeth of the dead look like a formidable weapon.

Conclusion

So, we found out that to date, no virus, no fungal infection or radiation leak will lead to a zombie apocalypse from a biological point of view. And this means that we will be spared from escaping from the tenacious paws of hundreds of crazed monsters. They pose no real threat to humanity.

Scientists are faced with a new wave of epidemic in animals, which turns them into a kind of walking dead, who are slowly dying of exhaustion. In addition, experts have found that this virus can be dangerous for humans.

According to the site, a team of scientists from the University of Colorado (Colorado State University) carefully studied the latest samples of infected deer, which were carriers of the dangerous virus spongiform encephalopathy or chronic fatigue syndrome (Chronic Wasting Disease). This disease was discovered back in 1967, and after infection, deer refuse to eat, and simply roam the neighborhood like zombies, slowly dying from exhaustion. The virus infects the structure of the animal's brain, and causes the death of nerve cells. The latest data from scientists claim that this disease is also dangerous for humans.

Previously, it was believed that a person cannot catch this virus due to the interspecies barrier. Recently, however, experts have found that if people eat contaminated meat, they can also become infected with chronic weakness syndrome. In this case, a person may develop one of several prion diseases, which today are incurable. So far, it has been established that deer, elk, mules, and even cows can carry a dangerous disease. At the same time, the symptoms of the disease may initially proceed imperceptibly in the animal, and appear only two years after infection.

According to the site, so far there has not been a single case of infection with a similar disease in humans. However, experts remind that during the mad cow disease in the UK more than 20 years ago, 156 people died who fell ill due to the consumption of infected meat.

Because - life is ahead of the dream!

Maria Pimenova

The difference between a human and a rat is not so great, it is not for nothing that new drugs are being tested on rats. Now imagine that a little less than half of humanity (that's how many are infected with toxoplasmosis today) will lose their sense of self-preservation and lose their minds? (We mean even more than now.) This can happen if Toxoplasma decides to evolve.

You can say that she had enough time for this and it is unlikely that it will come to her mind, especially since she doesn’t even have a head! But don't forget the biological weapons programs. Perhaps scientists are developing the newest species of bacteria Toxoplasma gondii right now, and the horrific results of their own work do not bother them at all (because they are most likely already infected with Toxoplasma).

It should be noted here that, technically speaking, people infected with Toxoplasma cannot be considered zombies in the narrow sense, because they were never dead. But it will hardly comfort you if they start knocking on your windows.

neurotoxins

Some poisons can slow down your vital functions so much that doctors declare death. Such neurotoxins include, for example, fugu fish poison (in small quantities it causes paralysis and lethargic coma). Very often, after coming out of a coma, a person loses his memory and is able to perform only the simplest tasks: eat, sleep and wander with his arms outstretched forward.

How could this lead to a zombie apocalypse?

Actually, this has already happened in Haiti, the birthplace of the very word "zombie". If you don't believe me, ask a man named Clavius ​​Narcissus. In 1980, he unexpectedly appeared in his native village and stated that all this time, that he was considered dead since 1962, he was a zombie. Clavius ​​was recognized by his sister, despite the fact that she had attended his funeral 18 years earlier. The man claimed that he was forced to drink some kind of drink, after which the doctors declared him dead (a medical certificate was even found). But Clavius ​​did not die, but served as a zombie to a certain bokor sorcerer.

However, sorcerers in Haiti used zombies (in which they killed people with the help of the poison of the toad bufo marinus and the plant with the speaking name "zombie cucumber") to work on sugar plantations.

The next time you put sugar in your tea, remember that it can be picked up by the industrious hands of zombies.

Fortunately, even if some very malicious sorcerer finds a way to poison most of the planet's population and turn them into weak-willed zombies, he will still not be able to turn them into bloodthirsty cannibals.

Virus

In the textbook movie for all zombie fans, 28 Days Later, the cause of the pandemic was a virus that turned people into mindless killers in a matter of seconds (15, to be boring). In reality, some mental disorders can lead to the same result. They are, of course, harmless. This was before mad cow disease appeared. The disease attacks the animal's brain, causing symptoms similar to rabies. The first cases of the disease were detected in 1968 in England, and then in other European countries.

How can this turn into a zombie apocalypse?

In a person infected with mad cow disease, behavior changes, movements become uncoordinated, sometimes convulsions, hallucinations and delirium occur. To date, there are not so many human cases of mad cow disease that we can seriously talk about an epidemic, but nevertheless this proves that the possibility of a contagious disease that affects the human brain theoretically exists. Such a virus will be transmitted through bites. You can call it "supercow madness".

neurogenesis

What do you know about stem cells? In principle, all you need to know about them is that they are used to regenerate dead cells. Thus, the interest of zombieologists (if such suddenly exist) may be directed to the restoration of the brain in a dead body with the help of stem cells.

How could this lead to a zombie apocalypse?

Brain death is perhaps the most unpleasant event that can happen to a person. Scientists have learned to grow organs, but if the brain has been without oxygen for a short time, then the nerve connections cannot be restored, which means the end of the human personality in the form in which it existed before. But with the achievements of modern science, scientists can reanimate the brain and, as a result, get a living being devoid of higher nervous activity. Just what we can call a real zombie - the walking dead.

First you need to decide what all these signs of a zombie are. Probably the biggest symptom known to be literally dead has nothing to do with real medical parallels, so we will limit ourselves to only those diseases that make people look like the living dead. These include decay and dead flesh, a trance-like state that robs a person of any cognitive function, an inability to communicate in ways other than moaning and mooing, a slow shuffling gait, and a desire to taste human brains or at least bite someone.

Is there one such disease that includes all these features? No. But there's a whole bunch of diseases that have some of these signs and it's scary enough.

Sleeping sickness

The scary thing is that there are still no vaccines or ways to prevent the spread of infection if a person is bitten by a tsetse fly. Even currently available treatments are of little benefit. Melarsoprol is one of the treatments available, but it's over fifty years old and contains enough arsenic to kill one in twenty people it's used on. And even if a person survives after that, there is still a risk that he will pick up this disease again.

About 50,000-70,000 people die from sleeping sickness each year, although the figure could be much higher. In Uganda, one in three people is at risk of contracting the disease, leaving about six million people at constant risk of infection. So every year we have about 50,000 samples of the living dead, although they don't stay that way for very long.

Rabies

There is no such disease, mental or physiological, that causes people to eat other people, at least such diseases are not known to medicine. (Cannibalism is not considered a mental illness, but rather part of some kind of mental disorder.) There are certain culture-specific mental conditions, wendigo psychosis, found among Native Americans. This is one of the best examples of people thinking they are becoming cannibals, that's all.

Although rabies under certain conditions can resemble certain conditions, like zombies, when they feel like eating human brains. The rabies virus causes severe inflammation or swelling of the brain and is almost always transmitted through bites from infected animals. About 55,000 people die each year from rabies, most of these deaths occur in Africa and Asia. Even though vaccines for rabies exist, they must be given before symptoms appear in order for the patient to survive.

Again, the symptoms of rabies are very similar to those of a zombie: complete or partial paralysis, mental disturbance, confusion and strange behavior, possession and, finally, frenzy. Not all symptoms may appear, but a patient can easily be identified as having rabies if he cannot think and communicate clearly, has difficulty walking, and exhibits an aggressive obsession that takes the form of attacks on people.

While such a zombie-like patient is medically possible, it's actually not realistic. Human-to-human transmission of rabies is very rare and most often occurs due to insufficient screening prior to organ transplantation.

Necrosis

Anyone who is familiar with the Greek roots already knows what the matter is: necrosis is death, namely, certain groups of body cells until the complete death of a person. It's not technically a disease, but rather a condition with many different causes. Cancer, poisoning, injury, and infection may be possible causes of premature cell death.

If we want to literally describe the living dead, then a patient with dead tissue might be the closest equivalent of a zombie. After all, a patient suffering from necrosis is technically half dead, although he is still alive in many other important parts of the body (brain, heart, and other vital organs) that we associate with life.

If it is caused externally, the necrosis causes a series of events that can lead to even more negative influences beyond the affected area. Dead cells stop sending signals to the nervous system, dead cells can release dangerous chemicals that harm neighboring healthy cells. If the lysosome membrane inside the cell is damaged, enzymes can be released that also harm the cells around.

This chain reaction can cause the necrosis to spread (and if it spreads to a fairly large area, then this is already gangrene) and, in the end, the outcome can be fatal. The only way that can help in this situation is the removal of dead body parts. If the dead area is too large, then amputation may be necessary.

The good news about this situation is that necrosis is not contagious, meaning it can't cause a zombie outbreak. .

In preparation for a public lecture on personality psychology, I was looking through excerpts from the book The Enlightened Heart by the psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim. In it, he describes his experience as a prisoner in the concentration camps Dachau and Buchenwald, in which he was in 1938-1939, as well as the experience of other people who faced the system of destruction of human dignity later, when the Nazis "revealed" at full power. I made notes, extracts, and as a result this article turned out.

I was interested in the psychological aspect of what was happening in concentration camps. How the Nazi system broke personalities, how personalities resisted the system and the monstrously destructive psychological field, what strategies were used and how they deformed. In the end, personality is our strategies for adapting to the world around us, and what we are, this world, largely (but not everything) depends on what we are. - writes Ilya Latypov.

So, let's begin…
The Nazi system in 1938-1939 - the time of Bettelheim's stay in Dachau and Buchenwald - was not yet aimed at total extermination, although then lives were not considered either. It was focused on the "education" of a slave force: ideal and obedient, not thinking about anything but mercy from the owner, which is not a pity to waste. Accordingly, it was necessary from resisting an adult personality to make a frightened child, to infantilize a person by force, to achieve his regression - to a child or even to an animal, a living biomass without a personality, will and feelings. Biomass is easy to manage, it does not cause sympathy, it is easier to despise it and it will obediently go to the slaughter. That is, it is convenient for the owners.

Summarizing the main psychological strategies for suppressing and breaking the personality, described in the work of Bettelheim, I singled out and formulated a number of key strategies for myself, which, in general, are universal. And in different variations they were repeated and are repeated at almost all levels of society: from the family to the state. The Nazis only collected it all into a single concentrate of violence and horror. What are these ways of turning personality into biomass?

Rule 1. Make a person do meaningless work.
One of the SS men's favorite pastimes is to force people to do completely meaningless work, and the prisoners understood that it did not make sense. Carrying stones from one place to another, digging holes with your bare hands when shovels lay nearby. What for? "Because I said so, you kike muzzle!"

(How is this different from “because you have to” or “your job is to do, not think”?)

Rule 2. Introduce mutually exclusive rules, violations of which are inevitable.
This rule created an atmosphere of constant fear of being caught. People were forced to negotiate with the guards or "kapos" (SS assistants from among the prisoners), falling into complete dependence on them. A large field for blackmail was unfolding: the guards and kapos could pay attention to violations, or they could not pay attention - in exchange for certain services.

(Absurdity and inconsistency parental requirements or state laws - a complete analogue).

Rule 3. Introduce collective responsibility.
Collective responsibility blurs personal responsibility - this is a well-known rule. But in conditions where the price of a mistake is too high, collective responsibility turns all members of the group into overseers of each other. The collective itself becomes an unwitting ally of the SS and the camp administration.

Often, obeying a momentary whim, the SS man gave another meaningless order. The desire for obedience ate into the psyche so strongly that there were always prisoners who followed this order for a long time (even when the SS man forgot about it after five minutes) and forced others to do so. So, one day the guard ordered a group of prisoners to wash their shoes inside and out with soap and water. The boots became hard as a stone, rubbed his feet. The order was never repeated again. Nevertheless, many long-term prisoners in the camp continued to wash the inside of their boots every day and scolded anyone who did not do this for negligence and dirt.

(The principle of group responsibility ... When "everyone is to blame", or when a particular person is seen only as a representative of a stereotypical group, and not as a spokesman for his own opinion).

These are the three "preliminaries". The following three act as a shock link, crushing an already prepared personality into biomass.

Rule 4. Make people believe that nothing depends on them.
To do this: create an unpredictable environment in which it is impossible to plan anything and force people to live according to the instructions, stopping any initiative.

A group of Czech prisoners was destroyed like this. For some time they were singled out as "noble", entitled to certain privileges, they were allowed to live in relative comfort without work and deprivation. Then the Czechs were suddenly thrown to work in a quarry, where there were the worst working conditions and the highest mortality, while cutting back on food rations. Then back - to a good home and easy work, after a few months - back to the quarry, etc. No one was left alive. The complete lack of control over your own life, the inability to predict what you are encouraged or punished for, knocks the ground out from under your feet. The personality simply does not have time to develop adaptation strategies, it is completely disorganized.

“The survival of a man depends on his ability to retain some area of ​​free behavior, to retain control over some important aspects of life, despite conditions that seem unbearable ... Even an insignificant the symbolic opportunity to act or not to act, but according to one’s own will, allowed me and people like me to survive.”
B. Bettelheim

The cruelest daily routine constantly urged people on. If you delay one or two minutes on washing, you will be late for the toilet. If you delay making your bed (there were still beds in Dachau then), you will not have breakfast, which is already meager. Hurry, fear of being late, not a second to think and stop... You are constantly driven by excellent guards: time and fear. Don't you plan day. You don't choose what to do. And you don't know what will happen to you later. Punishments and rewards went without any system. If at first the prisoners thought that good work would save them from punishment, then the understanding came that nothing guarantees against being sent to mine stones in a quarry (the most deadly occupation). And they were just rewarded. It's just a matter of whim of an SS man.

(This rule is very beneficial for authoritarian parents and organizations, because it ensures the absence of activity and initiative on the part of the recipients of messages like “nothing depends on you”, “well, what have you achieved”, “this is how it has always been and will be”).

Rule 5. Make people pretend they don't see or hear anything.
Bettelheim describes such a situation. An SS man beats a man. A column of slaves passes by, which, noticing the beating, unanimously turns their heads to the side and accelerates sharply, showing with all their appearance that they “did not notice” what was happening. The SS man, without looking up from his occupation, shouts "well done!". Because the prisoners demonstrated that they had learned the rule "not to know and not to see what is not supposed to." And the shame, a sense of powerlessness intensifies among the prisoners and, at the same time, they unwittingly become accomplices of the SS man, playing his game.

(In families where violence thrives, it is not uncommon for someone to from relatives He sees and understands everything, but pretends that he sees and knows nothing. For example, a mother whose child is sexually abused by her father/stepfather… In totalitarian states, the rule “we know everything, but we pretend…” is the most important condition their existence)

Rule 6. Make people cross the last inner line.
“In order not to become a walking corpse, but to remain a man, even humiliated and degraded it was necessary all the time to be aware of where the line passes, because of which there is no return, the line beyond which one must not retreat under any circumstances, even if it threatens one's life. Recognize that if you survived at the cost of crossing this line, you will continue a life that has lost all meaning.
B. Bettelheim

Bettelheim gives such a very illustrative story about the "last line". Once an SS man drew attention to two Jews who were "losing". He forced them to lie down in a muddy ditch, called a Pole prisoner from a neighboring brigade and ordered them to be buried alive. The Pole refused. The SS man began to beat him, but the Pole continued to refuse. Then the warder ordered them to change places, and those two received an order to bury the Pole. And they began to bury their partner in misfortune without the slightest hesitation. When the Pole was almost buried, the SS ordered them to stop, dig him back out, and then lie down in the ditch themselves again. And again he ordered the Pole to bury them. This time he complied, either out of a sense of vengeance or thinking that the SS would also spare them at the last minute. But the warder did not pardon: he trampled the ground over the heads of the victims with his boots. Five minutes later they were sent to the crematorium, one dead and the other dying.

The result of implementing all the rules:
"Prisoners who learned the idea constantly inspired by the SS that they had nothing to hope for, who believed that they could not influence their situation in any way - such prisoners became, literally, walking corpses ...".
B. Bettelheim

The process of turning into such zombies was simple and clear. At first, a person stopped acting of his own free will: he had no internal source of movement left, everything he did was determined by pressure from the guards. They automatically obeyed orders, without any selectivity. Then they stopped raising their legs when walking, they began to shuffle very characteristically. Then they began to look only in front of them. And then came death.

People turned into zombies when they abandoned any attempt to comprehend their own behavior and came to a state where they could accept anything, anything, everything that came from outside. “Those who survived understood what they did not realize before: they have the last, but perhaps the most important human freedom - in any circumstances to choose their own attitude to what's going on." Where there is no self-relationship, zombies begin.