Researchers have simulated a situation in which zombies will spread throughout the United States of America! What came of this? Read it now!
Where to run during the zombie apocalypse?
Researchers say that during a zombie invasion, large cities themselves become dangerous places. But the mountains are a relatively safe place. So if (or when) the zombie apocalypse comes, those of us in the big cities are in immense trouble, according to a study presented at the March 5th meeting of the American Physical Society on March 5, 2015.
What is the reason?
A zombie presence in a big city like New York or Atlanta means you will be at risk from the start if zombies spread, says Alex Alemi, a Cornell University graduate student who was a member of the research team.
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Do you want to be saved? You are much better off going away from people, this gives you a better chance of avoiding infection! Ideally, you should flee to an almost empty region such as rocky mountains.
Most of New York will be destroyed in just a day, while the northern part of the state - hard-to-reach and sparsely populated, where mostly mountains are located - can hold out for at least a month.
True, this ceases to be relevant if the territory is inhabited by too many fleeing people. By the way, after 28 days, large cities are becoming safer.
Authentic disease modeling
Alemi and colleagues used standard disease models to estimate the rate of infection with zombies in the United States, suggesting that humans must be infected by their bites. Also, following the standard protocol, zombies only travel on foot and will not die naturally, but will need to be “killed”, presumably with a hard blow to the head.
Basically, the researchers used a realistic model, very similar to the one that epidemiologists use to calculate the spread of other viruses, but using fictitious parameters unique to zombies.
They made some assumptions, including the collapse of the transportation infrastructure. It is difficult to imagine that airports would remain operational for a long time in this scenario.
How it works
Alemi and other authors modeled different localities in the country and then suggested some possible interactions, of course, with an element of chance.
A zombie can bite and infect a person, a person can run away or kill a strange creature. And, of course, the undead always go ahead.
Also, in reality, the outbreak probably won't start at the same time across the country, and there are some variables. Zombies can be more or less aggressive, or more or less mobile.
Thus, the research team built an interactive model that allows you to simulate a zombie epidemic by choosing a starting point, the ratio of a zombie bite to killing a zombie, and the choice of the speed of movement of these creatures.
“Given the time, we could try to add more complex social dynamics to the model, such as allowing people to chase zombies, including flying planes, etc.,” the press release said.
While zombie stories may seem a little silly for researchers to spend their time on, public health researchers tend to love these scenarios as they help educate people about how diseases spread. By the way, the authors were inspired to this exciting statistical study by reading the book by Max Brooks "War of the Worlds Z", which, according to scientists, is better than the film of the same name based on it.
Christina Vitta