Not the cities.
And not the oceans.
It's the mountains, we're told.
Researchers at Cornell University modeled the statistical mechanics of surviving the zombie apocalypse and will present their findings at the American Physical Society on March 5th.
Alex Alemi, a graduate student involved in the research says, "We build up to a full-scale simulation of an outbreak in the United States, and discover that for 'realistic' parameters, we are largely doomed."
He adds that it's unlikely the entire country will be infected at the same time, like depicted in movies and books.
He says that while heavily populated cities might be toast within days, less populated areas could be unaffected for weeks.
It's thought that the northern Mountain Time Zone could potentially be safe for months.
"Given the dynamics of the disease, once the zombies invade more sparsely populated areas, the whole outbreak slows down—there are fewer humans to bite, so you start creating zombies at a slower rate," he elaborates. "I'd love to see a fictional account where most of New York City falls in a day, but upstate New York has a month or so to prepare." (Phys.org)
What's next for Alemi and colleagues?
"Given the time, we could attempt to add more complicated social dynamics to the simulation, such as allowing people to make a run for it, include plane flights, or have an awareness of the zombie outbreak, etc.," he notes.
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