Monday, September 6, 2010

Zombie Apocalypse: Sooner than we think?

As I spent my weekend watching zombie movies, and playing Dead Rising (a zombie apocalypse game) I thought up a major fear. In the game Dead Rising, A Governmental attempt at lowering the cost of breeding cattle, they accidentally create a wasp which then spawns parasitic larvae, leading to a zombie apocalypse. Despite the ridiculousness of this plot, it reminded me of a news article I saw on the Wall Street Journal.

"Heralding a potential new era in biology, scientists for the first time have created a synthetic cell, completely controlled by man-made genetic instructions..."

What I found interesting was that the DNA was programmed using a computer, and was simply injected into a bacterium, taking it over and creating artifical life. It may just be the zombie nerd in me talking, but that sounds to me like the start of what could become a zombie virus.


Bland, By Eric. "It's Alive! Artificial Life Springs From Manmade DNA." Discovery News: Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, Dinosaurs, History. 20 May 2010. Web. 06 Sept. 2010. .

Hotz, Robert Lee. "Scientists Create First Synthetic Cell - WSJ.com." Business News & Financial News - The Wall Street Journal - WSJ.com. 21 May 2010. Web. 06 Sept. 2010. .

4 comments:

  1. I suppose the connection is there, but I think theres a big gap between controlling a cell and a full blown zombie apocalipse. That being said... the posibilities of such a technology are rather frightening, and while i don't think zombies are on there mind, a computer controlled bacteria could be easily ised in biowarfare

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  2. Computer controlled bacteria isn't being used as we speak... that is who most swiss cheeses are made these days. I was watching an episode on the discovery channel, and that is who they create the wholes in swiss. But I fear zombies more than swiss.

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  3. I agree with adam, its a little far fetch to connect controlled cells and a zombie apocalypse. I don't fear this though because the likeliness of this happening are very slim, and if it does in fact happen, it wont be in our lifetime. But its a good thought, whether these zombies can in fact be made.

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  4. I suppose that one day the computer controlled bacteria could be made into some sort of zombie virus, but even if that is the case, I don't think it would happen for a long time. I don't believe that the zombie apocalypse, if it ever does happen, will happen in our life time.

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