A neuroscience blogger, David Deriso, (who lives in San Diego by the way, as this is the heart of neuroscience investigation) has an post on why explaining science to the public in an understandable way is important. Because, as he states, the uninformed public tends freak out about zombies.

Although difficulty gives science a charming mystique, it is also a fatal flaw. The masses fear what they do not understand, and consequently, and largely due to the poor communication ability of scientists, a lot of great ideas are misconstrued as threats to society.

Scientists, and especially those who write about science, need to be acutely aware of this double-edged sword. Although the mystery of genetics could lead to cures beyond the imagination of modern medicine, how many zombie films start out with a science experiment gone wrong?

Equally plausible to causing zombie-syndrome is an intergalactic cosmic twinkie that explodes on impact, spreading its nefarious alien marshmallow filling into the atmosphere, instantly causing the uprising of a blood-sucking army of undead zombies. But the public doesn’t think of stale cosmic twinkies as a potential cause of zombie-syndrome; instead, they think of stem-cells, gene therapy, and pharmaceuticals. Why? Because they understand the limits of twinkies, but they have no idea what limits are on science.

I think he underestimates the dangers of cosmic twinkies (also, I take issue with his use of the term “blood-sucking” to describe zombies when “brain-eating” would be more true to life), but otherwise an amusing and meaningful piece.