Zombies - for real?

[jacobmuller]

just read this i09 article, how a zombie outbreak could happen in real life, and loved it.
Mainly because about 20yrs ago I started writing short stories in an SF setting where the BSE fungus alters to affect all mammals (MSE). Although only a low %age of victims would be classic zombies.

you don't need to read the rest of this but who knows, maybe it'll trip some ideas for you
I also added bioroid furries that were altered by the nanovirus cure for MSE. But they were chimera created by a mad scientist bent on vengeance (and taking the long route) against all mankind (she definitely qualifies that as an oxymoron). Her "cure" included sapience and breeding capabilities for her chimera, altered sex-ratio for all (male embryos tend to self-destruct) and extreme sexual mono-morphism (all women look like Olympic shot-putters; the rare and precious men are more feminine {and about as necessary as crystal chandeliers})

[vicky_molokh]

You're looking for the word Misandrist?

[jacobmuller]

Aha, misandrist, thank you.
Another bass-ackwards moment LOL.
(only slightly mitigated by yesterday realising that it's not only genetic but progressive or is that grumpy-old-man syndrome 'tude to youth?)

[The Colonel]

BSE fungus? Since when has a fungus been involved? Last I heard it was a wierd form of toxic protein in the dock for BSE...

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

BSE fungus? Since when has a fungus been involved? Last I heard it was a wierd form of toxic protein in the dock for BSE...

BSE is still thought to be a prion disease. The OP seems to be confusing it with Ophiocordyceps unilateralis a parasitic fungus that infects some species of ant.

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

BSE is still thought to be a prion disease. The OP seems to be confusing it with Ophiocordyceps unilateralis a parasitic fungus that infects some species of ant.

Ahah. I understand t.gondii is also a popular candidate for 'real life zombie bug'.

[Jonas]

Just a small request, the next time you want to 'hide' a bit of text could you use the

Spoiler:  

spoiler tags

rather then blindingly white text on a default yellow background? The contrast doesn't really hide the text as make it very annoying and somewhat discomforting to read. Thanks.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

Ahah. I understand t.gondii is also a popular candidate for 'real life zombie bug'.

Toxoplasmosis is interesting in that it apparently does affect human behavior, although exactly how much or how is still a matter of debate. It's also a protozoan and not a fungus, so unlikely to be what the OP is talking about.

The effect even on the normal host (rodents) isn't as extreme a set a of behaviors as the O. unilateralis fungus inflicts on it's ant hosts. The ants are compelled to climb plants to nearly exactly the same height, on the same (north, IIRC) facing side, and then bite onto the plant with unnatural force (leaving a characteristic scar in the plant tissue), then they orient their abdomen's upright, and die. This leaves eerie fields of identical fungal fruiting bodies growing out of the corpses of the ants, one per plant, all in the same position.

T. gondii comparatively just makes rats like the smell of cat urine...

[tantric]

And may very well be the causative agent of Cat Lady Syndrome, which is all together fascinating, IMHO. Epidemiology geeks have a field day with T. gondii.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

T. gondii comparatively just makes rats like the smell of cat urine...

Actually it's more complicated than that.

First, it removes the fundamental terror that the smell of cats incites in rats, both male and female. Very specifically targeted - the smell of dogs, ferrets, bears, whatever still causes fear, sudden loud noises still cause fear, being dropped in water still causes fear, etc. After all the parasite needs the host to live long enough to find a cat to feed itself to!

That's terrifyingly precise, and it's done via brain surgery by a surgeon who has no brain.

Second, it makes male rats sexually attracted to the smell of cat pee. Males only, and it's specifically sexual attraction, not just random release of opiates.
It appears to operate entirely differently in female rats. So now we have a single-celled brain surgeon who can tell (from inside the rat) what sex the rat is, and switch strategies in the brain accordingly.

Third, it makes rats slow to react, making it hard for them to escape the cat even if they come to their senses and try to flee.

Last I heard, they don't know how it works in female rats at all, and were hoping that studies of human females with the infection might give them some insights (seeing as humans can talk and all).

In humans, T. gondii causes flu-like symptoms in the first stage of infection, then makes itself quite comfortable in your brain cells and tries to go to work. It still seems to screw up reaction time, and may or may not be a factor in schizophrenia (aggravating vulnerable people, or causing enough brain changes that it springs up de novo, they're not sure - it's still at the guessing phase.).

In male humans, T. gondii appears to be correlated with dying in very high speed motorcycle accidents. Correlation is not causation, but there's some speculation (ie slightly tongue-in-cheek ) that since humans aren't hard-wired about cats, T. gondii may instead be causing a strong positive response to the fairly-ancestral fear of being flung through the air at high speeds to splatter against something hard. More likely it's just the screwed up reaction times that tend to kill motorcyclists travelling at 200 km/hr.

In female humans the only other confirmed effect is that t. gondii causes spontaneous abortion of pregnancy. There's some suspicion it may be involved with Cat Lady Syndrome, but it's hard to be sure since anyone living with Too Many Damn Cats is inevitably going to be a T. gondii carrier (hard to avoid even if all you're doing is cleaning the litter box for one cat). So did they get T. gondii and it made them into cat hoarders? Or did cat hoarding expose them to T. gondii?

Again, there's some speculation (ie guessing) that based on the hypothetical link between Cat Ladies and T. gondii, its strategy in female rats may be to cause maternal attachment to cats. But since there's no evidence yet that Cat Lady Syndrome is actually caused by T. gondii that's really not worth the electrons this is written on.

Still, it's convenient (and funny) for me to blame my total addiction to cats on "having the brain-worms".