Prion detection

In West African and Haitian Voodoo teachings, zombies are human beings without a soul, their bodies are nothing more than a shell controlled by powerful sorcerers. In the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, an army of clumsy, half-witted corpse-eaters brought to life by radiation attack a group of local Pennsylvanians. We're looking for a cross between Haiti and Hollywood: an infectious agent that will make its victims half-dead, but still living shells of who they used to be.

This effective agent will target and block specific areas of the brain, the scientists say. And although the living dead have intact motor skills - the ability to walk, of course, but also the ability to vomit, necessary in order to devour human flesh, their frontal lobe, which is responsible for moral behavior, planning and restraining impulsive actions (such as the desire to bite someone something) will cease to exist. The cerebellum, which controls motor coordination, is likely to be functional, but not fully functional. This explains the fact that the zombies in the movies are easily outrun or knocked over with a baseball bat.

Most likely, protein is the culprit of such a partially destroyed brain. More specifically, a protein-like infectious particle called a prion. It's not really a virus or a living particle, but it's almost impossible to destroy and there's no known way to treat the disease these prions cause.

First prion epidemic was opened around 1950 in Papua New Guinea when representatives of one of the local tribes were struck by a strange tremor. At times, the sick people of this tribe burst into uncontrollable laughter. The tribe called the disease kuru, and by the early 1960s, scientists had discovered that the source of the disease stemmed from the tribe's cannibal funeral customs, including brain-eating.

Prions became widely known in the 1990s as the infectious agents responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease. When a deformed prion enters our body like a mad cow, holes form in our brains, like holes in a sponge. Brain scans of prion-infected people looked like they had been shot in the head with a shotgun.

Scary Assumptions

If we think that the evil geniuses are planning to destroy our world, then all they will have to do is attach the prion to the virus, since prion diseases spread very easily among the population. To actually make things even more catastrophic, we need a virus that spreads very quickly and that will carry prions to the frontal lobe of the brain and cerebellum. It will be difficult to direct the infection to these parts of the body, but it is very important in order to create the shambling, dumb creatures that we need.

Scientists propose to use a virus that causes encephalitis, an inflammation of the cerebral cortex.

A herpes virus will do, but it's unlikely to be able to attach a prion to a virus. Once infected, we will have to stop the spread of the prion in the body so that our zombies do not become completely immobile and their brains completely useless. The scientists suggest adding sodium bicarbonate to stimulate metabolic alkalosis, which raises the body's pH and makes it harder for prions to multiply. In this case, the person will have seizures, convulsive muscle contractions, and he will look as terrible as a zombie.

Abnormal infectious proteins, called prions, can block parts of the brain while leaving others intact, creating a zombie out of a person. It may well be, but it's not that easy.

In West African and Haitian Voodoo teachings, zombies are human beings without a soul, their bodies are nothing more than a shell controlled by powerful sorcerers. In the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, an army of clumsy, half-witted corpse-eaters brought to life by radiation attack a group of local Pennsylvanians. We're looking for a cross between Haiti and Hollywood: an infectious agent that will make its victims half-dead, but still living shells of who they used to be.

This effective agent will target and block specific areas of the brain, the scientists say. And although the living dead have intact motor skills - the ability to walk, of course, but also the ability to vomit, necessary in order to devour human flesh, their frontal lobe, which is responsible for moral behavior, planning and restraining impulsive actions (such as the desire to bite someone something) will cease to exist. The cerebellum, which controls motor coordination, is likely to be functional, but not fully functional. This explains the fact that the zombies in the movies are easily outrun or knocked over with a baseball bat.

Most likely, protein is the culprit of such a partially destroyed brain. More specifically, a protein-like infectious particle called a prion. It's not really a virus or a living particle, but it's almost impossible to destroy and there's no known way to treat the disease these prions cause.

The first prion epidemic was discovered around the 1950s in Papua New Guinea, when members of one of the local tribes were struck with a strange tremor. At times, the sick people of this tribe burst into uncontrollable laughter. The tribe called the disease kuru, and by the early 1960s, scientists had discovered that the source of the disease stemmed from the tribe's cannibal funeral customs, including brain-eating.

Prions became widely known in the 1990s as the infectious agents responsible for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease. When a deformed prion enters our body like a mad cow, holes form in our brains, like holes in a sponge. Brain scans of prion-infected people looked like they had been shot in the head with a shotgun.

Scary Assumptions

If we think that the evil geniuses are planning to destroy our world, then all they will have to do is attach the prion to the virus, since prion diseases spread very easily among the population. To actually make things even more catastrophic, we need a virus that spreads very quickly and that will carry prions to the frontal lobe of the brain and cerebellum. It will be difficult to direct the infection to these parts of the body, but it is very important in order to create the shambling, dumb creatures that we need.

Scientists propose to use a virus that causes encephalitis, an inflammation of the cerebral cortex. A herpes virus will do, but it's unlikely to be able to attach a prion to a virus. Once infected, we will have to stop the spread of the prion in the body so that our zombies do not become completely immobile and their brains completely useless. The scientists suggest adding sodium bicarbonate to stimulate metabolic alkalosis, which raises the body's pH and makes it harder for prions to multiply. In this case, the person will have seizures, convulsive muscle contractions, and he will look as terrible as a zombie.

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 newest species bacteria Toxoplasma gondii right now, and the horrendous results own work they don't care 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 at his native village and stated that all this time that he was believed to be 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.

The popularity of zombies has long gone beyond the horror genre. The "living dead" became the favorites of kids, fighting with plants in children's games. They are one of the typical enemies in fantasy shooters and TV series. Become an element of youth design in clothing. Are chilling horrors really a thing of the past, and today no one cares if a zombie apocalypse is possible? Let's try to figure out how relevant this topic is and what is the probability of the appearance of the "living dead" on the streets of modern cities.

Do zombies exist in real life?

Creatures with rotten flesh, snarling and pulling their hands and teeth to the brain, overgrown with many stories, legends and superstitions. They appear in mystical thrillers and melodramas, teen comedies much more often than their "colleagues" of vampires, adding a bit of humor or symbolizing the oppressed layers of society. In the world of cinema, the living dead are constant extras, which are divided into two main categories:

1. Classic zombies are corpses that have risen from the graves, often not distinguished by intelligence and quick wits.
2. The living dead are the result of some kind of pandemic that has turned most of humanity into aggressive carnivorous creatures.

What about reality? It is authentically known that zombies in the original sense are not a fiction of Hollywood directors. The word comes from one of the African languages ​​and means "Dead Man's Soul". To the question "Who are zombies and do they exist?" the voodoo priest will answer in the affirmative, adding that he would not mind getting a couple of specimens for gardening.

1. The rite of turning a person into a submissive slave, indeed, exists in this religion, but does not imply his real death. In Haiti, such practices are illegal.
2. For the ritual of a potential zombie, the sorcerer needed a puffer fish containing a strong nerve poison - tetrodotoxin. A person who tasted the drug of a voodoo priest fell into a coma.
3. Relatives mourned and buried, and then the "dead man" came to life - the poison was excreted from the body. However, the "zombie" was too confused and scared to return home. The sorcerer constantly drugged him with drugs and forced him to work.

Fictional "living dead" are distinguished by incredible vitality and strength. They are able to find victims by sound or smell. Neuroscientists have even published a book on the zombie brain to humorously understand the functioning of these strange creatures. In Andrey Cruz's book The Age of the Dead, the infected have a frightening effect, demoralizing not only ordinary survivalists, but also professional military personnel. Consider whether a zombie apocalypse is possible in real life.

• Even an army of obedient slaves of a voodoo priest, who do not pay attention to pain and bullets, are not capable of causing a global catastrophe of civilization. A horde of this kind can be easily stopped by ordinary police or a special forces detachment. Enough sleeping pills to stop them from being dangerous.
• In the event of an epidemic, the virus will be quickly localized and investigated. So far, there is not a single strain that turns a person into a superzombie. Sick people are weakened due to pathological disorders in the body and are not often able to bite even a doctor. The plague epidemic caused significant damage to the Medieval civilization, but the problem lay in the reduction of the population.
• For the functioning of a living person, the coordinated work of many systems is required. After death, an irreversible process of decomposition occurs. The resurrected zombies will not be able not only to growl, but even to walk. Although their behavior can be explained by disturbances in certain areas of the brain, but stories with voodoo or an epidemic still remain more plausible.

Should you prepare for the zombie apocalypse?

Behind the crowds of aggressive "living dead" lies the fear of war, devastation, the collapse of civilization. All this has already happened before, is happening now and will happen in the future without any participation of revived or infected beings. There are also zombies in the natural world.

“We wanted the new songs to blow everyone’s mind,” shares plans for the January album Gods Of Violence Mille Petrozza - just to say "wow!", and that's it. That became the main, conscious goal of the release." We already checked out the titty-brutal-ritual clip for some time ago - and I don’t know about the video, but the topic is really unrealistically cool. As well as the cover art for the album, which was created by one of KREATOR's favorite artists, maestro Jan Meininghaus. Although ... let's clarify. The cover has two versions. One is international by Jan, and the other is a special North American authorship.

However, today it is not about differences and not about who is cooler. Intrigued by Meininghouse's work, I came across an interesting manual: how the artist worked on the artwork for the DVD KREATOR Dying Alive.

“I've always loved thrash metal,” Ian wrote in the introduction, “bands like SLAYER, METALLICA and KREATOR. Therefore, of course, I am proud of my role: today I create most of the artwork for the releases of my phenomenal fellow countrymen. After I worked on the cover Phantom Antichrist in 2012, Mille Petrozza also asked to come up with something for DVD/BluRay Dying Alive 2013. We met in January and discussed who had what ideas. And, both fans of the zombie genre, quickly agreed on the theme of ghouls and post-apocalypse. With this I set to work, a few days later I sent the first draft to Milla.

In general, he liked it, but a wish was received: to make zombies look like musicians, more frightening and, of course, with guitars. Plus, an additional “support group” appeared in the background.

Then they removed the wreckage of cars - because Millet wanted to get rid of associations with modernity, to focus on something timeless (the 99 Honda Accord will definitely not work here). Well, the giant background demon has found its original bodypaint.

Rough detailing of the demon and his servants, lines and sky. All work was done in Photoshop on a WACOM Intuos4.

Some more light/shadows and clouds in the sky. I love fantasy characters because they don't need to correspond to some reality (as, say, if we are talking about the portrait of a person). Plus blood and broken bones... it's always nice to draw something like that...

Artwork KREATOR has always been famous for its gloom and brutality. Let's not change the traditions, and also emphasize the live essence of the released release.

Detailing the appearance of the main characters: I spent night after night working out the nuances of rotted skin and the grin of the skull. As far as I know, Nuclear Blast released posters with these images, so my efforts paid off.

I do most of my work in b/w. But you can't do without blood in horror! So the demon and the environment gradually began to turn bloody. Well, in the middle of the wounds and swollen veins, I added a fraction of white highlights in order to create the effect of "phlegm".

And some more blood! The crooked arms of the characters add momentum to the composition - and it can also be considered a small nod to the behavior of the audience at the KREATOR show ...

Now let's add colors. As a rule, I avoid painting the characters themselves, focusing only on the play of light "outside". Well, the atmosphere of the composition, in my opinion, is achieved by combining a maximum of two tones (one warm, the second cold). The black areas of the image have been lightened slightly to avoid comic book associations.

Well, let's finish it! Finishing touches on a zombie company, heaven and earth. A demon shrouded in clouds and smoke rises above the devastated land. Emphasizing its inhuman size, I added a flock of birds in the belly area.

The sky has taken on a dramatic orange hue, iridescent with hints of red and yellow like the flames of hell. And in order not to overdo it with brightness, I partially discolored some places. Now let's add a title, a logo, and... done!