World War Z

Judy Ann Osborne
Lecturer in mathematics at the University of Newcastle
Disclosure statement

Judy Ann Osborne does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.


It also provides funding member of the conversation.
newcastle.edu.au


Brad Pitt zombie Action Thriller World War Z has a premise strong enough to give us pause for thought. Image of shutterstock.com
Could be a new infection desperately sweep the world in a matter of weeks? This may be strange disease that alters people's behavior beyond recognition, making it the predatory and fear? Can be a big city like Philadelphia exceeded in a matter of hours?

Based on World War Z, Brad Pitt and the latest thriller, this disturbing possibilities, there are the seeds of knowledge in every one of them. The film is based is based on the book Max Brooks, history major and the son of director Mel Brooks, who said that although the book is called "World War Z: Oral History wars zombie", should really be called "World War Z: the inclusion of plague real here," .

And realized the horror of the zombie epidemic deftly in this film, with lots of action and tense Gore surprisingly little. The house is lovable character too - some incredible family man, and a nice surprise under pressure and quickly process and resourceful in the face of the threat of a sudden.

Centers plot about logic inevitably it seems: infection delete characters and creates zombies, and individuals infected infection to others faster than they can be killed, and I lost all the injured intention of self-preservation, so it can not be terrified, or cause to stop the destruction of humanity.


World War Z: the inclusion of real plague here. Sergei Galyonkin,
Reflected a chilling idea that a single bite can turn individuals love to automated intent only on the transmission, in some real diseases, some of which we can not always cure. May not be transferred rabies through a bite, and cause mania, violence, brain damage and death, and can be transmitted from animals to humans.

Toxoplasma virus in mice caused them to become fearless, getting in close to the cats and get eaten, where the virus completes its life cycle in the intestines of the cat. Other diseases that attack the tissues of the human brain, and can change the behavior of a clear and personal neurosyphilis and include CJD (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) - the human form of mad cow disease.

Literature modeling a zombie?

This has created Director Marc Forster film shouting scale personal with that of the cataclysms of nature - the lead character Gerry Lane (Pitt) leaves reluctantly family, using all the skills and judgment that he learned an operative Former United Nations, to combat this threat and this is biological but mindless. And again in the sights of zombies running and flowing above and on the wall like a river of giant ants, indifferent to personal survival, using each other's bodies and landed him self-growth.

The crucial personal choices by individuals, as opposed to collective behavior, in the sports literature zombie attack modeling the menu - yes this literature exists: these subjects!

The paper, "When Zombies Attack:! Mathematical modeling of the spread of infection coma" by an Australian mathematician, based in Ottawa and his students the definition of this type when applied mathematical techniques modeling the disease to standards and B Virtual coma.

In this model, people infected and uninfected contact and infect each other in a random manner, at a rate which, in the context of, specifies the demise or survival of the human race. Follow-up book, scheduled for release in the next year, and includes articles by a group of academics, including myself, and explores the various scenarios via mathematical modeling techniques that take into account the rights and agency skill and options, which leads to different results.


The researchers used mathematical modeling techniques to analyze hypothetical zombie plague. Image of shutterstock.com
Both mathematics and movies allow us to explore the possibility of space: what may be the world. The power of the human imagination, with the support of the ideas offered by the mathematics and computer simulation, and allows us to plan and prepare for the future, including the main threats.

Is the use of mathematical modeling routinely to assess the effectiveness of different plans for vaccination, medication, and education programs, in extreme cases, quarantine, and other strategies used in an attempt to control the deadly diseases such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), tuberculosis (TB).

The latter matter can not expect more than one in Australia, since the incidence of TB MDR-high and high in Papua New Guinea. This affects a short boat ride away in the Australian territory in the Torres Strait.

When resources are limited and need to make decisions about whom to treat and when, and modeling helps decide what options may profoundly affect the outcome. With respect to the Torres Strait, math shows us that the Australian treatment PNG citizens helps to keep the tuberculosis infection in Australia is less than it would be without the intervention.

Zombie scenarios of mathematics

In mathematics from the zombies turned out to be not much different to that in the analysis of any emerging infectious disease, with three main possible outcomes. There is a chance that this disease affects every member of the population: in World War Z This is the zombies of the two sides, and humanity is destroyed effect.

There is a chance that the same disease die out due to death or treatment of hosts: In World War Z, and this is the people of the two sides, and zombies, are destroyed outcome. The third possibility is that the transmission rates of death or the balance in the treatment of just such a way that the disease persists in the population without fatigue.


In fact, one of the hero is likely to bring us the insight we need to survive. Grmisiti
The paper showed the original attack zombies how the chances of survival of humanity vary depending on whether interventions such as quarantine and treatment or eliminate rush available.

In the film, we follow the letter of the house through every moment of the heart race as he seeks the origin and cause of the outbreak, in the hope that he will find an idea that can be used to lead out of the scenario, which is the destruction of humanity, and to one of survival.

In the real plague, can rely on emerging champion to bring us insight and we would need to survive? Rarely achieved quickly understanding: It is often they slowly built by many of the people who are working on the same problem from different perspectives.

We may be in a better position to invest now in understanding the vagaries of nature, including our own human nature? World War Z is a raucous good action film, with the premise strong enough behind it to give us pause for thought.