The latest tome of Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress contains an unusual paper investigating the dynamics of a zombie outbreak: "When Zombies Attack!: Mathematical Modelling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection", by four Canadian mathematicians, concludes that the best defence against zombies is to 'hit hard and hit often'. This story broke last week, but I've been so busy that I've not had time to cover it - or read the paper. Thankfully the excellent Mark Henderson at the Times Science Blog has got my back with an excellent article that includes some extra curious info not reported elsewhere.
But why write a paper on the science of zombies when you can write a whole book?
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Ig Nobel
Now starting sequence 1, 2, 3...
Wildfires are similar: if you don't get a handle on a forest fire quickly, it will get away from you. The fires in California north of L.A. tripled overnight last night.
*"FCD" is Friend of Charles Darwin, from the eponymous Web site.