2 Seperate Questions. - Writers Forum

kurrgan · 03-24-2006, 01:49 PM

My first question is in regards to Puffer Fish and the rumor/myth about the toxin they produce that can result in what has come to be called the Zombie Effect. I tried to research but can not find the answers i was seeking. First: is it real. Second: if only in theory, how does the zombie effect work medically. does it create a deathlike situation? meaning no discernable bodily activities and the such. Any explanation or even a place i can research this would be of great help.

My second question is in reference to fighting arts. I am searching, to no avail, for a little known, underpublicized type of small hand held weapon. one i could have a character trained extensively in. if nothing like it exists perhaps some fighting system i could look at not a conventional one like would appear in most novels and so on and so forth. any information i can get is greatly appreciated.

thanks all and have a great day .....

mN.sparroW · 03-24-2006, 03:20 PM

Try a kama.

RussellN · 03-24-2006, 05:22 PM

If I remember correctly, the puffer fish has a small poison gland and the poison in the gland is a nerve poison which is why it is so deadly. I'm not sure which part of the nervous system it effects but since it kills people I doubt the zombie bit is true.

As for a weapon not in other novels - you'd have to make one up.

Good luck with the writing

Beardedtroll · 03-25-2006, 02:37 AM

Well, here's the entry on zombi from the online Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

In Vodou, a dead person who is revived after burial and compelled to do the bidding of the reviver, including criminal acts and heavy manual labour.

It is believed that actual zombis are living persons under the influence of powerful drugs, including burundanga (a drug reportedly used by Colombian criminals) and drugs derived from poisonous toads and puffer fish.

zombi. (2006). Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 25, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service http://www.britannica.com/ebc/article-9383374

RussellN · 03-25-2006, 06:54 AM

Ta da!

Thanks for the info - I'll update the trivia bin.

Kamisama · 03-25-2006, 02:42 PM

TTX

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...tx&btnG=Search

One of my favorite neurotoxins.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...&dopt=Abstract
http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/mcb/165_0...ipts/_317.html

Quote:

Tetrodotoxin (anhydrotetrodotoxin 4-epitetrodotoxin, tetrodonic acid, TTX) is a potent neurotoxin, which blocks action potentials in nerves by binding to the pores of the voltage-gated sodium channels in nerve cell membranes. The binding site of this toxin is located at the pore opening of the voltage-gated Na+ channel. Its name derives from Tetraodontiformes, the name of the order that includes the pufferfish, porcupinefish, ocean sunfish or mola, and triggerfish, several species of which carry the toxin. Although tetrodotoxin was discovered in these fish and found in several other animals, it is actually the product of certain bacteria such Pseudoalteromonas tetraodonis, some species of Pseudomonas and Vibrio, as well as some others.

What gets me is how it doesn't develop TTX in isolation. Somehow the pufferfish obtains the ability to make the poison in nature, but I don't think people figured out where, how, and when.

A low dosage of the neurotoxin gives people zombie like affects.
A high dosage stops a person from breathing, eventually leading to death.

Pretty dangerous stuff and easily obtainable.

FrankBlissett · 04-02-2006, 06:12 PM

Here's two paragraphs from Wikipedia's entry on "Zombie" - it has some good detail in the history of the concept of pufferfish mojo being able to create a zombie. I also included the next paragraph as it seemed interesting (at least to me!).

Hope this helps.

Quote:

Several decades later, Wade Davis, a Canadian ethnobotanist, presented a pharmacological case for zombies in two books - The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis travelled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person could be zombified by the ingestion of two special powders. The first, coup de poudre (French: 'powder strike' - a wordplay on coup de foudre, 'lightning-strike'), induced a 'death-like' state, the key ingredient of which was tetrodotoxin (TTX). Tetrodotoxin is the same lethal toxin found in the Japanese delicacy fugu, or pufferfish (Tetraodontiformes). At near-lethal doses (LD50 of 1mg), it is said to be able to leave a person in a state of near-death for several days, while the person continues to be conscious. The second powder of dissociative hallucinogens held the person in a will-less zombie state. Davis popularized the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice. There remains considerable skepticism about Davis's claims, and opinions remain divided as to the veracity of his work.

Others have discussed the contribution of the victim's own belief-system, possibly leading to compliance with the attacker's will, and causing quasi-hysterical amnesia, catatonia, or other psychological disorders, which are then later misinterpreted as a return from the dead. Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing further highlighted the link between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in the context of schizophrenia and other mental illness, suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the psychological aspects of zombification.