Science of Zombies; National Aphasia Awareness Month
June 25, 2012, the U.S. Senate approved Senate Resolution 503: Designating June 2012 as `National Aphasia Awareness Month’ and supporting efforts to increase awareness of aphasia.
From the fact findings of the resolution:
- Aphasia is a communication impairment caused by brain damage
- Aphasia may include a loss of, or reduction in, the ability to speak, comprehend, read, and write, but the intelligence of a person with aphasia remains intact
- Aphasia affects at least 1,000,000 people in the United States
And – more than 200,000 people in the United States acquire aphasia each year
This resolution seems like a good step for zombie rights and also parallels with aging zombies as an increase in stroke survivor and alzheimer patients.
Meanwhile, a “Theoretical Zombiologist and Head of the Zombie Institute for Theoretical Studies” has an article in The Guardian Express that tries to explain zombies symptoms. The article, “True Zombieism: The real science behind the undead” explains:
the following symptoms; a shuffling unsteady walk, the loss of human personality, the desire to consume any food source, and communicating only by a moan. These symptoms are presently found in humans suffering from a variety of diseases, but not all four in the same disease, yet.
The article considers viruses, parasites and prions as possibilities. I am reminded of the ants that are taken over by zombie fungus and America’s amygdala and Dr. Schlozman’s zombie autopsies.
Finally, for today’s zombie science news, here is Scientific American with a blogged chat transcript about bath salts : “Bath Salts: The Not-So-Bad Wolf” explaining that “zombies don’t exist” but “methylenedioxypyrovalerone” does. Although from a social constructivist perspective, I think they both exist and in fact “zombies” might have more effect on most people than MDPV ever will.
