Thinking about zombies

Yesterday, I was finally able to catch the final episode of this season's The walking dead, one of my favourite TV shows. 

I am not sure whether other people have thought about this as O know most watch it got entertainment, however I was thinking of the science. The only way to kill the zombies or walkers is to destroy the brain. Even though the show is now supposedly several years after the zombie apocalypse, there are thousands of zombies walking around. They are supposed to be dead and as we all know dead people will start decomposing, including their brains. The fact that they can walk and even tear apart stuff means that their brains are still alive, blood is still flowing and muscles are still functional, and can still bite. This is not really believable as the brain is among the first organs to decompose. If a few years, that is fine. However, to see so many zombies decades later is simply not possible.

In some episodes we can see zombies without the body and only the head hissing and moving the mouth. 

The explanation may be that the zombie apocalypse was caused by super microbes which take over the dead body and specifically the brain and keep it alive. Or alternatively a more credible explanation from a scientific point of view, may be nanobots released into the atmosphere which are now in the bodies of all human beings and which are activated once the body dies and they take over. 

I know this has been a slightly morbid post. However, I would love to hear your theories of you are a fan of zombie movies and still reading my blog. 

Wondering about the ancients - nine planets, flying chariots and WMDs

Yesterday my daughter was complaining about her boring history classes and asking me tips on how to remember dates and names. She was also wondering why we have to learn about history in the first place.

"What is the use of learning about people that passed away and events that happened long time ago?"

I was explaining to her, that we need to learn from history so that we do not make the same mistakes again and also to learn from things that went right. I also told her that I was in our school and University Quiz teams and was an extra reason I had an interest in memorising the details of things that happened in the past.

However, today morning I was pondering about our conversation while reading an article about ancient Indian. Thousands of years ago, the ancient Indians believed that there were nine planets and even worshiped them as Demi Gods. I even wear a pendant given by my Mum which is called Nav-Ratan in Hindi (9 Jewels) and Graha Mapan in Manipuri, which represents the 9 planets.

We know this to be a fact today and even there were some debate on whether there was a 10th planet and the removal of Pluto from the list of planets for a while.

The question that bristled in my brain was how these ancient people knew there were 9 planets when there is no evidence that they had telescopes.

Or were there advanced civilizations which had access to telescopes and other scientific equipment  and I then think about all the ancient Hindu epics with their flying chariots and weapons of mass destruction and wonder whether these were actually faced on facts.

Facebook for birds

I came across this really interesting article on the BBC website, whereby males of a bird species called long-tailed manakins collaborate to make a particular mating spot "hot" to the female birds. One bird graciously bows out to the alpha bird but with the condition that they "inherit the mating site and become the alpha himself".

The article mentions the "Granita pact" also known as the Blair-Brown deal. Apparently, the birds in Costa Rica also have similar agreements.

It was quite funny when the way Dr McDonald of Wyoming University, describes the way Alpha males are selected. He calls it "Facebook for birds".

Read the article "Dance duet helps male birds mate".