Could a Zombie Virus Actually Exist

A bite. A fever. A few days later, something else is walking around in your body. Could a zombie virus actually happen? So I fell down a pretty dark rabbit hole on this one. Scientists will tell you zombies are impossible, and they're mostly right. But every single piece a zombie virus would need already exists in nature. Tiny and I try to build one, step by step: rabies, which sneaks into the brain along your nerves and makes animals want to bite; the zombie-ant fungus that steers its host to the perfect leaf at noon; a real zombie virus that makes caterpillars climb trees and melt; and the wasp that walks a cockroach home on a leash. Then we look at why the human body makes a terrible zombie, the real "zombie" headlines (a fungus that may be learning to survive our body heat, "zombie deer" disease, and 48,500-year-old viruses brought back from the permafrost), and what scientists found when they actually modelled a zombie outbreak. A few of these ideas are still hypotheses, and I say so in the video when they are. 0:00 A bite, a fever… and then? 0:55 Step one: break into the brain 2:51 Step two: make them bite 4:37 Step three: take the wheel 7:25 Is it already in us? 9:31 Why zombies don't work (and what does) 12:11 If it happened anyway 13:47 How little it takes If you enjoyed this, subscribing genuinely helps this little channel, and me, grow a lot. Thanks for hanging out. Sources: (18 links, copy them from 06_metadata.md) #zombie #virus #science