Hello everybody! I'm new here and need your help.
First of all, I'm from Austria and must apologize for my bad English. I hope you still understand what I need ;)
For my "Matura" (general qualification for university entrance) in Biology, I have to write a paper (~20 pages) about Zombies. As you can imagine, this shouldn't be some fictional essay, but a scientific paper, in which I want to elaborate the biological aspects. But, I don't want to make a simple list of diseases, parasites, or whatsoever that can make a living being act zombie-like, but concentrate on only a few (the nastiest). Also I want to bring in a little of the topic "life after death", not in a religious or philosophical way, but rather, again, the biological aspects (like hair continues growing for a couple of hours, and so on) and maybe factors, that have an influence on it.
What I have found so far, are "Leucochloridium paradoxum" a parasite infesting snails, "Ophiocordyceps unilateralis" a fungal disease of ants, "Toxoplasma Gondii" a parasite infesting all mammals, and "Rabies" a virus, also infesting all mammals. (I think there are a lot more out there, so if you have heard of any, let me know) T. Gondii and Rabies are my favorites so far, because humans can get them.
The main problem is that I just can't find good papers on the internet. All there is, are 2 or 3 paragraph long descriptions of the diseases, but I want to exactly know how they work and what they do. (I think) they all have in common that they affect the brain, which for me is not enough. I would like to know how exactly they do that and which areas,...
So, can anyone give me suggestions where I can get further information on "Zombie-diseases"?
Also, for this is my first paper (with relevance on an official exam), I'd really appreciate any other impulse (structure, chapters, content, ...).