Fresh Corpse
Donated bodies are left exposed to the elements at the University of Tennessee's "Body Farm," so researchers can study decomposition's four stages, starting with the "fresh" state (shown).
Image: Grant Delin
In Brief
- After death, the human body decomposes through four stages.
- The final, skeleton stage may be reached as quickly as two weeks or as slowly as two years, depending on temperature, humidity and other environmental conditions where the body lies.
- Dead bodies emit a surprising array of chemicals, from benzene to freon, which can help forensic scientists find clandestine graves.
More In This Article
-
Overview
The End
Welcome or not, dying is a natural part of the circle of life. Death initiates a complex process by which the human body gradually reverts back to dust, as it were. In the language of forensics, decomposition transforms our biological structures into simple organic and inorganic building blocks that plants and animals can use.
Four main factors affect the pace and completeness of decay. The most important is temperature: the rate of chemical reactions in a cadaver doubles with each 10 degree Celsius rise. Humidity or water from the environment buffers those reactions, slowing their effects. Extreme acidity or alkalinity hastens how quickly enzymes degrade biological molecules—although again, the presence of ample water can mediate the effects. Finally, anything that blocks exposure to oxygen, such as burial, submersion or high altitude, will slow decomposition. Depending on the interplay of these four factors, the body can turn into a skeleton as rapidly as two weeks or take more than two years.
This article was originally published with the title Dust to Dust.
Already a Digital subscriber? Sign-in Now
If your institution has site license access, enter here.
See what we're tweeting about
12 Comments
Add Commentreally enjoy this type of report first thing in the morning. Coupled with the other joyous news reports of the day, it sets the stage for another profitable day as a human. Before being flamed, yes I recognize the importance of this and related but still ...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thislogic and scientifict papers, but pray without hoax everyday so your soul will be with God after death.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is SCIENTIFIC american go to a christian chat room and post that sh#$!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat title was pretty clear, if you don't want to read about this sort of thing, then keep moving, and if you don't want to read about the other 'joyous' news, turn off your computer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@tiurlumphd, you are intellectually already dead. Science and logic can save us from the infectious virus called faith but unfortunately, it sounds like it is too late for you. You have become nothing more than a intellectual virus vector, the psychological equivalent of a mosquito.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease explain and cite the bibliographical source of the 'Scientific' term you use in so eloquently explaining yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease explain and indicate where you derived this 'Scientific' term that you use to so eloquently express yourself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisKGreenPE....here's one
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science
I was taught that the use of foul language is the sign of a weak mind. A stronger focus on language skills and critcal thinking would be more appropriate and may even help your position. Being impatient and intolerant with other people certainly doesn't.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, the last time that I looked, this is still a free country and we are able to express our feelings as we see fit.
Just as the article stated in the beginning, we all die and as much as we don't want to think about it, it's going to happen eventually. Not to step all over the beliefs of the religious, but a soul is something abstract within the brain and when our bodies begin to decompose, those abstract things will disappear. Religion does well at its purpose of guiding people and making the rough aspects of life (such as death) sound a little less harsh (like saying one will float into Heaven, rather than saying the body is going to rot in a hole in the ground). It's much the same fashion as the baby carrying stork. It's much easier to tell a child that a stork flies babies to parents rather than go into the nitty-gritty about human reproduction. All in all, everybody dies and while its a pretty clear consensus of what happens to the bodies, what happens to the "soul" is for everyone to decide for themselves.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPersonally I wouldn't want endless time, ie physical immortality, so I am happy to accept death as a natural process.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you have a document in Word and you don't save it before somebody switches off the computer, where does the information in the document go? This is analogous to an afterlife. The magnetic fields contract, pushing electrons along, but where have they gone? Maybe some IT expert can answer this.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this