- Hey, I'm Jessie.
Science can be scary, but I'm
here to make it less scary.
Today's questions is...
- Hey Jessie, so I have a real
important question for ya.
I've been watching a lot of
zombie movies and T.V. shows
and it really got me thinking
how plausible zombies
and walking corpses would be when you
take into account body decomposition.
- That's a really great question,
especially because we see
these things all the time
on our movie screens, T.V. screens.
- I like turtles.
- In our nightmares,
some call them zombies,
some call them walkers,
some call them spooky boys.
But at the end of the day,
they are all made of the same stuff.
(screeching)
How long it takes a body to decompose
depends on a number of factors.
Is the body buried?
Has it been embalmed?
Is it in a coffin?
Is the body in water?
Have the maggots or vultures found it?
Is it near a sweltering equatorial jungle
or buried under a snowy
avalanche in the arctic?
Okay, taking this whole
zombies aren't real thing
out of the equation,
how long would it take
for a regular zombie, or
your own body, to decompose?
Cause we're all gonna die.
And our bodies will rot and
then we will be nothing.
("Last Resort" by Papa Roach)
Anyways, let's take a look.
Every dead body undergoes the same
four stages of decomposition,
which starts within four minutes of death.
These are autolysis, bloat, active decay,
and skeletonization.
Autolysis or self-digestion is
when membranes in your cells
rupture and they release these
enzymes that cause your cells
to start eating themselves
due to lack of oxygen
and excess carbon dioxide.
- Well he started it.
- This happens in about one to three days.
And this is also the
stage that rigor mortis,
or that muscle stiffness, kicks in.
There's also algor mortis, fun fact,
which is called death chill,
in which your body starts
to cool down after you die
about one degree per hour
until it reaches room temperature.
That's why dead bodies are
cold, cold to the touch.
Cause technically
they're room temperature.
To the above point, narratively speaking,
a zombie or walker is still viable here.
Most zombies that we know
and love move rather slowly
and stiffly, presumably
because of rigor mortis,
but still ultimately have
control of their muscles.
And this is the part of the video
where we decline the
notion of fast zombies.
Sorry 28 Days Later and World War Z.
And Left For Dead, one and two.
Within ten days a dead body is
in stage two of decomposition
or the bloat stage, and not
like when you eat too many beans
and you're just like full
of gas kind of bloat.
- You better get a bucket,
I'm gonna throw up.
- No actually it is that kind of bloating
in the sense that the bloating
is caused by the gut bacteria
breaking down all the
enzymes and releasing tons of
disgusting smelling gas.
It also actually, it like swells
your body from the inside.
Remember that part in Space Jam?
As the bacteria works
its way through your body
and various organs, you
begin to change color.
(cheering)
That's fun.
Typically you go from a greenish color
to a reddish purple to black.
Like a giant dead mood ring.
Within several weeks the
body is now in stage three,
or active decay.
This is the part where
zombie bodies are becoming
less and less likely because
this is around the time
that your teeth and nails fall out.
And without teeth, I mean
a zombie without teeth
can't bite you, so how do
you even become infected,
and no, I know what you're
gonna say, but c'mon,
a zombie with dentures is
even more ridiculous, guys.
But, kind of cute.
After a month, your
body starts to liquify,
which means your skin will
kind of start to melt off.
Oh god, who signed off on this episode?
You're gonna melt, sorry.
- I'm melting, melting.
(groaning)
- Stage four of body
decomposition is skeletonization
and this typically takes the longest,
as the body's in a drier
stage of decomposing.
And depending on the pH of
the soil and other factors,
the skeleton might eventually
decompose entirely,
or it might undergo
diagenesis, or fossilization.
So at this point, zombie
bodies are completely useless
and have now entered army
of darkness territory.
(various screaming)
Of course, in terms of zombies
or walkers or spooky boys,
it's hard to say what
factors may contribute
to the slowing down of this
natural decomposition process
since we have yet to study them outside of
the realms of fiction.
However, if I had to take a gander,
I would assume that there is
some sort of functionality
within the parasitic
nature of the zombie host
that symbiotically allows
for an extended usage
of the vessel, somewhere between
autolysis and skeletonization.
Just my thoughts.
In summation, if a zombie
or walker apocalypse
really were to happen, their
bodies would only be viable
for two to three weeks,
before they fully melt.
(screeching)
Gross.
Hey, thanks for watching.
Don't forget to send in
your thoughts and questions
to @GammaRayTV and
@JessieScience on Twitter
and we'll see you next time.
Peace.
