You know the Walking Dead zombies arent real, right? Science says so – National Post

Zombies dont exist, but that doesnt mean we cant compare our favourite zombie-themed media with real-life science in the name of fun and good ol pedantry. As part two of The Walking Deads 10th season lurches towards a Sunday premiere, let us look at why (beyond fiction) the shows zombies fall apart through the lens of science.

For those who havent seen the show, the zombies are dubbed walkers by the protagonists. Anyone who is bitten by a walker becomes infected and dies before becoming a walker themselves. The slow-moving, flesh-eating walkers cant be easily killed.

Walkers dont use their internal organs such as lungs and heart, so bullets or wounds to the body are utterly ineffective at killing them. Even if a walkers head is cut off, the jaw will still snap and the eyes will still move. The brain is the only thing driving the zombie and destroying the brain is the only way to truly kill a member of the living dead.

Dr. John Neary is an associate professor of internal medicine at McMaster University. He says that the walkers brains would need vital circulatory organs to remain active.

The brain requires a constant uninterrupted flow of blood containing glucose and oxygen, Neary said in a phone interview.

In order for the walkers in the show to make the purposeful movements, such as grabbing, biting and walking, their brains would need a large amount of energy.

Theres no plausible way that could go on.

Even experts who are fans of the show find flaws in the way the walker virus works.

Sumon Chakrabarti is an infectious diseases specialist at the Trillium Health Partners Mississauga Hospital.

He has seen every episode and one issue that consistently bugs him is the way that characters avoid infection from the virus despite frequent contact with walker blood and guts.

Characters with open wounds will sometimes be splattered with blood when they kill a walker, and characters will spread walker guts all over their bodies to mask their scent. At one point in season 10, a woman accidentally cuts her hand with the same knife shes using to carve up a freshly killed walker, yet she completely avoids infection.

In any way that infectious diseases work, thats one of the main ways things can get in, Chakrabarti said in a phone interview. Theyre walking around, theyre injuring themselves all the time. For sure, a virus can get in thats the one thing that has always bothered me.

The writers of The Walking Dead seem to selectively apply this rule. At one point in the show, a group of human antagonists dip their bullets, arrows and blades in walker guts before going to battle, ensuring their enemies get infected and become walkers even if they arent mortally wounded.

Taking all the shows flaws into account, Neary says that thinking about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse isnt necessarily a bad thing.

In 2011, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released tips on how to survive a zombie apocalypse. The tips included the common sense steps people should take for emergency preparedness that are applicable to a variety of disasters.

Theres no reason why stories and thought experiments, and the lessons people might learn from thinking about these hypotheticals, arent interesting or useful, Neary says.

Despite The Walking Deads failure to portray his field accurately, Chakrabarti still proudly says, I love the show.

He says the shows inaccuracies adds stuff to debate about with other people who love the show.

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You know the Walking Dead zombies arent real, right? Science says so - National Post