Transcript How to make Zombies

How to make a ZOMBIE!
A Zombie
WARNING: Do Not Attempt this at home
without adult supervision
I Want Your
Brain
The Background
• Human muscles are
controlled by neurons
(nerve cells) called
axons.
An Axon
Nerve Impulses
• Axons carry electro chemical impulses as waves of
alternating sodium (Na+), and Potassium (K+) ions
across a membrane.
• After a neuron fires however, it must recharge itself by
pumping the Na+ and K+ back to where they started.
• This is the Sodium / Potassium pump and uses up to
85% of the body’s metabolic energy
Sodium Potassium Pump
• Voodoo practitioners
from the Caribbean
isolated an unusual
poison found in the
pufferfish called
Tetrodotoxin
pufferfish
Enter the Pufferfish
Tetrododotoxin
• Tetrodotoxin works by shutting-down the Sodium / Potassium
pump of axons controlling your voluntary muscles causing
paralysis, and usually death.
• However, in small doses applied to the skin, only paralysis
results, and since the body uses 85% of it’s energy for the
sodium / potassium pump, the victim’s oxygen needs are only
a fraction of what they used to be.
Buried Alive
Someone poisoned this way would
not be able to move, would only
breathe a couple of times a
minute and would have an
undetectable heartbeat.
They would appear dead
Accordingly, they would be
promptly buried.
Slavery!
•After being buried, those people responsible for the
poisoning would return and dig-up the unfortunate victim.
•They would be taken to a different island, and when they
recovered, be sold into slavery.
The Warm Welcome Home
•Needless to say, if the victim managed to escape or buy his/her freedom
and return home, the victim's relatives would be quite shocked since the
victim was believed dead.
•Many believed that the person had risen from the dead…hence the legend
of the zombie was born.
Voodoo PR
•Some voodoo practioners would poison victims to “prove” their powers.
•They would stand over their victims performing various rituals until the
person revived. It would appear to be the result of the witch-doctor’s
powers. Great PR
THE END?