ZOMBIE : SPECULATIVE
RENDERS
Team : Jordan Hodgson
"We model a zombie attack using
biological assumptions based on
popular zombie movies. We
introduce a basic model for zombie
infection and illustrate the outcome
with numerical solutions. We show
that only quick, aggressive attacks
can stave off the doomsday
scenario: the collapse of society as
zombies overtake us all." - Dr
Philip Munz, Carlton University,
Ottawa
In 2009 a group of Canadian
scientists published the research
paper 'When Zombies Attack:
Mathematical Modelling of an
Outbreak of Zombie Infection'.
Their comparison of depictions of
zombie outbreaks in film, fiction
and gaming with the 21st century
realities of H1N1 influenza and
other air-borne viruses shows the
territories of science, science
fiction and popular culture
overlapping in new and surprising
ways.
Has science fiction come full circle,
gaining currency as a valid tool in
the communication of 'true' science
and popular understanding of real-
world health issues? Or is scientific
understanding of 'fact' now too
strange and advanced to be
popularly incomprehensible
through anything other than the
familiar guises of 'fiction'? A series
of visualisations show London in
the midst of outbreak fightback:
stills from a movie or slides from a
future public health briefing...