Zombie Pigs

Your point of view will determine whether the concept of a zombie pig sounds great or horrifying. The zombie pig's reality is a little less terrifying than the name suggests, but it does have some intriguing scientific implications. The underlying news behind the title is that scientists were able to partially revive deceased pigs' brain functions. The pigs came from a slaughterhouse and were long since dead.

However, a team that was studying human brain death in an effort to maybe reverse it was able to take those technically dead brains and bring some cellular activity back. The pigs didn't come back to life—they actually had no bodies—but they did offer a substantial insight into how death affects the brain and what might one day be done to save human lives.

Three years later, the same researchers were pushing the boundaries of what was considered to be the finality of death by reviving cellular function in dead pigs. Again, there were no walking dead pigs, but the ability to retain organs and other tissue much past the point at which we traditionally thought of death holds immense promise for future organ transplants and the possibility of saving lives.