Limited thoughts.

I haven’t posted anything in a while, because exams have been taking up most of my time. So anyway, I was walking to school one morning, and these Jehovah Witnesses stopped me and handed me this little booklet and suggested I read it. Of course, the title of it captivated me- Doomsday: Fact, Fiction and Fantasy- so I decided to read a bit. It was the Awake! September 2012 edition, and as I read I came across a line that said: “There seems to be no end to the forces ready to pounce upon and lay waste to humanity-killer robots, monsters of all sorts, aliens, zombies, ghosts, dragons, apes, birds, mutant rats and giant wasps.” (The Fascination With Doomsday, Awake! September 2012) They said that people would not take these stories seriously, but I believe we know it is the contrary. In fact, people wouldn’t hype over it so much if there wasn’t even a glimmer of belief present, maybe a bit of fear. For me, it was the word “zombies” that caught my eye. Being a topic that I am very sensitive to, I decided to look into it a bit more. They also stated “First, they are based on the speculation of men, and humans have a far-from-perfect record when it comes to guessing the future.” (Doomsday May Not Be What You Think, Awake! September 2012) Now I should state that we are not trying to predict anything when making our theories about zombies. We are, however, looking at the possibility of something of that nature occuring at some arbritrary point, and brainstorming every possible way in which that would happen. We aren’t saying yes, the world will definitely end by the hands of zombies, but we are saying that it is very real that something of that nature and magnitude would have the ability to wipe out the human race (and maybe a couple other species as well). There was one line that I agreed with, which stated “Concerning that day and hour (when the world will end) nobody knows, neither the angels of the heavens nor the Son, but only the Father.”-Matthew 24:36 So we see that no one can predict it. But that does not mean that they should label everyone else’s theories as to the way in which it would happen as being wrong. I didn’t say that the Undead Hypothesis was right at all. But you know, they’re religion.
I am a Christian, however, so I do agree with everything the Bible has to say about this matter. Just saying.
But the zombies can come, and as I always say, non-believers are the first to die.

P.S.: There was a line that said “The upright are the ones that will reside in the earth, and the blameless are the ones that will be left over in it. As regards the wicked, they will be cut off from the very earth; and as for the treacherous, they will be torn away from it.”-Proverbs 2:5, 6. Think about that for a moment. Would that, in your opinion, determine who succumbs to the zombie Apocalypse? And what defines uprightness and blamelessness? I should be studying right now…

Something I considered…

Wow, haven’t been here in a while 😛 Ok, so I’ve been thinking right, and being a medical student and all, I think I have a pretty good idea of how the human body (in terms of physiology in relation to gross anatomy) should work under ideal circumstances. Any changes to the regular morphology or function of even the tiniest part of the body (DNA sequence) would alter the way the body works, and since the body won’t be at “optimum”, it wouldn’t have the capacity to function for a very long time, if even at all.

So, considering that the body of a zombie is simply the human body with a couple changes to the morphology and physiology, I’d say that a zombie won’t live very long. If it’s a change in the functioning of the brain, central or peripheral nervous tissue, there’s no way in which nerve cells won’t possibly die, even if at a slow rate. eventually, the positive feedback mechanisms would completely degenerate the tissues, and then there’s infarction and necrosis. That’s why I conclude: zombies won’t have long life spans.

A horse stepped on my foot today. Ouch.

Defects in gene technology, and a method of spread.

A pal of mine and I were discussing, over at wickedzombies.com, the possibility of zombification being caused by a man-made virus. He explained to me that since vaccines are just mild forms of the same virus, it would be possible for vaccinations to be the factor that initiates the spread of a virus so strong that it causes zombification. I thought for a second, and what I came up with next seemed plausible as well. So here’s my Recombinant DNA Hypothesis. For an illness like diabetes, we mass produce insulin using gene technology, where they cut out the portion of DNA that codes for insulin in humans, then add it to the plasmid DNA in the E.Coli bacterium, forming recombinant DNA that, when the bacteria multiplies to the millions, would produce large amounts of insulin. The same insulin is injected into the human. What if there was a change in the DNA sequence? Or what if the bacterial DNA mutates, or evolves? Let your imagination fill in the blanks.

Also, my bud came up with a very realistic (and freaky) way in which the zombie infection could spread. And I quote, “the human mouth is the second most toxic environment in the world. the Komodo Dragon holds the title for #1 most toxic mouth in the world. now take the second most toxic mouth in the world and put it in the mouth of a slowly rotting reanimated corpse. now you have your spread factor. between the naturally toxic bacteria in the human mouth and the bacteria from decomposing human flesh. then add the decomposing flesh left behind in a bite wound from prior victims. is it any wonder why a person dies between 24 to 48 hours after a minor bite to the hand or arm let alone a bite to an area where a major artery is?”

This guy is genius. Just genius.

Genetic anomalies

Today in class, we were studying embryology, and at one point the lecturer mentioned that when a woman has a child after the age of 40, it’s very likely that the child would be born with Down syndrome. Now this is a genetic disorder, caused by changes in number of chromosomes. Basically, it’s a mutation, and it causes physical abnormalities. My hypothesis for today is that zombification can be caused by genetic mutation, much like Down syndrome or sickle cell anaemia. What if there is a mutation- a change in the DNA sequence or number of chromosomes- that brings about physical and mental features in persons, later on in their life, which would allow us to classify them as “zombies”? It is a very vague idea, I must admit, because of a few glitches: factors that may cause such a mutation, like radiation or disease, and how these could bring about such a drastic genetic anomaly. Also, most babies born with serious genetic disorders die very early in life (a few days, or weeks maybe), and even if they do survive, in a case like this, zombification would not be contagious.

Ok, ok, I just sat back for a minutes and analysed this, and I came up with something else. Now, scientists have found that genes could be “switched on or off”. We would need an external factor to bring about that change spontaneously, so perhaps radiation of a high degree. there would be that single gene that, when switched on, would cause zombie-like features. Or maybe if a gene was to be switched off. That’s possible, right?

I don’t know, I’m typing these things right off the top of my head. I have a headache right now anyway.