Zombies.
You’ve seen the movies. The world these days is obsessed with zombies, has always been obsessed with zombies, and I remember the days when “zombie” was where “slutty” is in a Halloween costume.
To satiate your zombie-like hunger for zombies (let’s see how many times I can say zombie in this post…zombie) I’ve decided to type the word “zombie” into the search queries of my favorite science resources, and report back to you what I’ve come up with.
1.      DAWN OF THE ZOMBIE ANTS
A parasitic fungus known as Ophiocordyceps unilateralis infects ants in tropical jungles but is mostly keen on Camponotus leonardi’s brain. After taking over the ant’s brain, it makes its zombie host climb down from its natural habitat and latch onto leaf. Not just any leaf. Researchers found that the zombies clamp their jaws in a “death-grip” (pun intended) onto a leaf about 25 centimeters off the ground, in a very specific place. The ants are always found on the underside of the leaf, attached to a vein. Once the ant is hanging from the leaf, it dies, the fungus sprouts out of a very specific part of the back of its head, and it hangs in such a way that any ant walking beneath it in a square meter can be infected by the spores (researchers call this zone the “killing field.”)
2.      NIGHT OF THE LIVING DNA
What’s scarier than zombie ants? Zombie DNA. There is a special kind of virus called a retrovirus that inserts it’s DNA into yours. And over the course of millions of years, millions of retroviruses have lived, infected, and died. Now, in the 99% of your genome that’s “junk,” or non-coding DNA, there are bits and pieces of those long-extinct viruses. And with some special tinkering in the lab, scientists can bring these viruses back to life and observe their effects.
Sometimes the DNA doesn’t even need a human, but merely a mutation. In the case of Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD, a thought to be purely inheritable genetic disease, it turns out that the gene sequence needed to code for the disease is lurking in the shadows of your cells. A specific piece of the gene is missing in healthy people, which is why scientists thought it was dormant. But it turns out that one specific mutation in gene replication can play Dr. Frankenstein and bring this disease back to life.
3.      ZOMBIES IN SPACE
Probably not what you’re thinking, but cool nonetheless. In 2009 space-borne NASA telescopes observed a “zombie star” 30,000 light-years away. It was a high speed spinning neutron star, basically the remnants of a dead star, incredibly dense (“imagine the sun compressed to the width of Lake Tahoe,” says Scientific American) and very old. Scientists call it a “magnetar” because of its intense magnetic field, and this one happens to be the fastest spinning one of its kind – completing a rotation every 2.7 seconds. The magnetar can emit flares more frequently and more powerful than anything our Sun can do in 20 years. Thankfully, we’re nowhere near it.
4.      SUCIDAL ZOMBIE RATS
Some parasites are sneaky little buggers who go so far as to infect an animal and make it get eaten by the parasite’s preferred host. Toxoplasma gondii, a single-celled organism is just one of the many diabolically resourceful parasites. It infects the brain of a common rat and messes with the controls in the rat’s fear and anxiety centers. The result is that the rat will no longer do what is logical and run when it encounters cat-smell, but instead will just hang out and keep sniffing around. Thus the rat is more likely to get gobbled by the parasite’s ideal home: Mr. Fluffy’s gut.
Humans can be infected by Toxoplasma gondii as well, and over half of us are without even knowing it. It doesn’t affect its host’s health – just some brain patterns. Humans can get it from handling kitty litter or in some cases, even just plain soil. Scientists have speculated that it has different effects on men and women’s brains that come out as personality shifts, but there isn’t substantial evidence.
5.      WHAT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR…
Zombies. Just plain ol’ real life undead humans that roam the streets looking for brains to eat. Unfortunately, there is no scientific evidence for zombies, or the upcoming zombie apocalypse, or any virus/bug/parasite/disease that could turn a person into a zombie. However, I know this is all you want, so click the link below, and I think you’ll be pretty damn satisfied:
http://www.cracked.com/article_15643_5-scientific-reasons-zombie-apocalypse-could-actually-happen.html