Zombies are a popular figure in pop culture/entertainment and they are usually portrayed as being brought about through an outbreak or epidemic. Consequently, we model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and their stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions. We then refine the model to introduce a latent period of zombification, whereby humans are infected, but not infectious, before becoming undead. We then modify the model to include the effects of possible quarantine or a cure. Finally, we examine the impact of regular, impulsive reductions in the number of zombies and derive conditions under which eradication can occur. We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all.
(When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection, Munz et al (PDF))
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Ah, I saw an article on this in MX yesterday as I was reading it over someone's shoulder on the train. So there's no possible quarantine or cure for zombification? Now that's just lazy. What about Will Smith's "I am Legend" miraculous concoction for zombie-like mutant humans? Admittedly, they were a little more hyperactive than your average zombie, but shouldn't the same rule apply? If you take some blood and play around with it in an underground medical lab, success should ensue! Surely chopping off heads is not the only solution.
ReplyDeleteMost - OK all - of the mathematics in the paper is beyond me, but the graphs from the modelling of the various scenarios (including the quarantine/cure scenario) all tell the same story - it's the zombies or us. Sadly, all that mucking around with blood in the basement seems to achieve is a short delay in the inevitable.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Why muck around in the lab when we have a solution? A shot to the head and the zombie's dead!
ReplyDeleteI love that they've done a paper on this though. I love more that they got funding for it, that they try to justify other more 'plausible' applications for their research and their referencing. Who knew playing Resident Evil could inform a scientific paper?
Actually, I've had a bit of a rethink on the quarantine issue over the past couple of days. If, as most of the pop culture sources assume, the zombie outbreak occurred in the continental USA, it might be contained to the continental US States and Canada. In the interests of immigration control, the US has fenced off long strtched of its border with Mexico, providing the foundations, at least, of what might well become the world's first zombie proof fence. Pity about the Canadians.
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