Zumbis, fármacos e agentes biológicos: a midiatização de possibilidades e impossibilidades científicas no ensino de ciências

Abstract

Science teaching makes use of concepts spread across different areas of knowledge. Viruses, fungi, alkaloids, spasmolytics, neurotransmitters, etc. are terms that are as present in contemporary scientific literacy as they are in media productions that propagate the “zombie object”. The “living dead” are present in mythology, as are vampires, werewolves and witches. However, from a certain point in time, the living dead take on the identity of “zombie”, at first as something supernaturally possible and later as something scientifically possible. This research discusses and problematizes possibilities for teaching science based on contemporary zombies. To this end, we selected a media section that considers what we call scientific zombies in order to problematize the epistemological paths of these changes and possible subjectivations. To this end, we accept the existence of scientific zombies as statements that make up a discourse capable of producing not only this object but also subjects capable of identifying and accepting them in a given social-historical context. The dissertative analysis uses Foucauldian assumptions and seeks to provide information and propositions on the subject. It is possible to state that zombies in contemporary times are a media phenomenon capable of promoting discussions in different media networks and among different audiences, sometimes moving concepts that can imply conceptual errors, while at the same time they can be appropriated in a desirable way in processes of conceptual appropriation.