Zombie Research Society
Though in a normal human brain all blood flow ceases at death, in zombies this may not be the case. Prevailing hypotheses suggest that the modern zombie is controlled by its brain, and for a brain to work it needs blood.
A brain without blood flow would very quickly dry out, crack, and become little more than a lump of brittle nothing. University of California, Berkeley Neuroscience Professor, Marian Diamond, echoed this sentiment:
“The brain is dead if there is no electrical activity. Without blood irrigation, all channels would flatten, and there would be no brain function, and no sitting up or walking around.”
If blood does move through zombie bodies without the aid of a beating heart, we must then consider what might be driving the system.
One prominent hypothesis argues that increased electrical charges in the brain spur blood flow through a process of magnetic attraction and repulsion. Another argues that zombie blood acts as an independent agent, propelling itself.
As is often the case in the study of zombies, a single possible answer leads to many more questions.
The trouble with this is blood regeneration. In a living body blood is replaced after blood loss, so long as the wound isn’t mortal, but in a zombie body, usually one that has been ripped apart and already had extensive blood loss, how is this blood regenerated? If there’s not enough blood in the body the blood vessels collapse leaving the limbs stiff and inoperable, and the brain becomes a husk. So when the human corpse reanimates, how does the zombie have enough blood left to move?
I think the only answer is that zombie blood grows. Rather than pumping around by itself the blood grows through the body, becoming something altogether different than human blood, almost like a fungus, it doesn’t have to move fast, or be pumped, and loss of this pseudo-liquid would mean nothing to the zombie. Perhaps this “blood” does need some form of replenishment in the form of nutrients absorbed through the process of eating living flesh.
When not on “the hunt” for fresh victims the zombies need much less blood flow to survive due to not needing to move around quite so much, and when prey is sensed the blood kicks into overdrive “growing off of stored nutrients previously stored. The zombie physiology may even be advanced enough to allow the old coagulated “blood” to be eaten by the newly grown “blood” to conserve nutrients and keep the zombies from leaking or needing to excrete used up “blood”…
While both theories seem correct, they both fail to include why zombies can raise from a grave after embalming. The mortuary would use fluids to replace the blood and if you look closely the first zombies attack from a cemetary area.
I think it is important to highlight the point that zombies are NOT corpses. A defender’s task is to turn a zombie INTO a corpse. Zombies have to exhibit life-functions in order to function or to be a threat. This means that any vital organ damage could cease zombie functionality. It seems to me that the brain is good to target because it immediately incapacitates the zombie, while some police officers can testify that a medically-stimulated human can survive several gunshot wounds to the heart before stopping.
This of course applies to Viral Zombies as opposed to Magical Zombies (which work like any other formerly-inanimate object under the intelligent control of whatever forces move it).
“One prominent theory argues that increased electrical charges in the brain spur blood flow through a process of magnetic attraction and repulsion”
I don’t think this would work as a magnetic field has almost no effect on blood.
This is not my area of expertise, but I just found a couple of different articles about magnetic manipulation of blood.
Here is an excerpt from one:
“Human blood is composed of blood cells and plasma cells. Blood cells contain mainly red cells, white cells, and platelets. A red cell functions like a small container for a substance called hemoglobin, which gives blood its particular color. A hemoglobin molecule contains enough iron to make reds cells slightly paramagnetic and therefore subject to the effects of magnetic fields.”
I’ll need to do more research on this before I can post a full article. Thanks for the comment!
Re: Fedorov’s papers
Because it’s pending publication, they won’t give me permission to post it. I’m in negotiations to secure certain excerpts, and will make those available as they come in.
I love this! Do you have a link to Fedorov’s theory?