Wanna make a Zombie -- There's an app for that!

Got an iPhone? Zombie-fie yourself or a close friend (or in-law).



"ZombieBooth" is a cool iPhone app that allows you to take a picture of someone, or pick a photo from your library, and turn then into a 3D un-living, uhhh-- un-breathing, chomping zombie-- that follows your finger with it's dead but hungry eyes. And if you're careless enough to get too close to it's chompers-- it chows down like there's no tomorrow (which technically, for our zombie-friend is sadly true), with blood spraying everywhere and onto the iPhone screen. Awwww-- it's so cute when it nibbles away...

Zombie "Help-Line"

With all of this talk about real zombies-- I think this intiative is one well over-due.

Some studious and industrious individuals have set up a "Zombie Help-Line" to create (in their words): "a year long project to assemble a massive audio documentary consisting of peoples personal encounters and experiences with zombies."

It continues:

"We have a line where people have been leaving messages.. you can hear 6 mins of messages on the website www.zombiehelpline.com (the number is 1(831)BRAAIN5). We also just released a free iPhone/iPad app called Zombie Help (link http://bit.ly/hAYxUX). The documentary will be released for free online in about a year or so depending on the number of calls we get in."

I think it is imperative that ANYONE encountering ANYTHING that may be construed as a zombie, contact this hot-line. The fate of humanity and easy living may depend on it!!!

Watch this or DIE - The Walking Dead - Season 1

Amanda Tarbet, Staff Writer

I'm not really much of a zombie fan. I've only ever seen two zombie movies, 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead. For whatever reason, the genre was never on my pop culture radar. Needless to say, when I sat down to watch The Walking Dead, my thought process was not "Oooo, zombie show!" It was more like, "AMC is awesome. There's a good chance that this show will be good." As it turns out, I was right!

'Zombie' Ants Taken Over by 48M-Year-Old Parasitic Fungus

(Aug. 18) -- Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence -- 48 million years old -- of a fungus that takes over the bodies and minds of ants. "The fungus, which is alive and well in forests today, latches on to carpenter ants as they cross the forest floor before returning to their nests high in the canopy," reports The Guardian.

Once inside, the fungus, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, releases chemicals that cause the ants to leave the colony in search of leaves or fall from their high canopies onto leaves growing closer to the ground. A graphic description of the ensuing, gruesome death/zombification process follows:

In their last hours, infected ants move towards the underside of the leaf they are on and lock their mandibles in a 'death grip' around the central vein, immobilising themselves and locking the fungus in position. ... The fungus cannot grow high up in the canopy or on the forest floor, but infected ants often die on leaves midway between the two, where the humidity and temperature suit the fungus. Once an ant has died, the fungus sprouts from its head and produces a pod of spores, which are fired at night on to the forest floor, where they can infect other ants.

And if that vivid prose isn't enough for you, here's a video, courtesy the BBC.



A team of scientists lead by Harvard's David Hughes discovered the telltale bite marks when studying images of a leaf believed to be 48 million years old that was found in Germany. They published their findings in the journal Biology Letters.

"We now present it as the first example of behavioral manipulation and probably the only one which can be found. In most cases, this kind of control is spectacular but ephemeral and doesn't leave any permanent trace," Hughes said. "The question now is, What are the triggers that push a parasite not just to kill its host but to take over its brain and muscles and then kill it."

Paul Wachter Contributor
AOL News Surge Desk