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Science ponders 'zombie attack'

If zombies actually existed, an attack by them would lead to the collapse of civilisation unless dealt with quickly and aggressively.

Um ... did we not already learn the many lessons of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

That is the conclusion of a mathematical exercise carried out by researchers in Canada.

They say only frequent counter-attacks with increasing force would eradicate the fictional creatures.

One would think it would be easy to eradicate fictional creatures. One would be wrong.

The scientific paper is published in a book - Infectious Diseases Modelling Research Progress. ...

In some respects, a zombie "plague" resembles a lethal, rapidly spreading infection. The researchers say the exercise could help scientists model the spread of unfamiliar diseases through human populations.

In their study, the researchers from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University (also in Ottawa) posed a question: If there was to be a battle between zombies and the living, who would win?

Perhaps the crossover Glenn Beck audience?

Professor Robert Smith? (the question mark is part of his surname and not a typographical mistake) and colleagues wrote: "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." ... --BBC

Most annoying name since Jenny 8 del Corte Hirschfeld.

Click on the BBC link and read the rest, and do read the comments on this Freakonomics blog post on the topic.

They start like this:

Sadly the study uses a flawed model. It doesn't distinguish between dead humans and dead zombies, so previously decapitated zombies count as being able to (re-)reanimate.

... and go on from there.