Since our bar room book club fell apart when MC acquired a girlfriend, my mother and I started our own. First up: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.
Anything you ever wanted to know about cadavers is here. Does the brain recognize anything after being guillotined? What about that body farm? How long does embalming fluid preserve a body? Can a body be preserved forever? Wonder no more: Yes, for 7 to 10 seconds; Chapter 3; Just long enough to have the funeral; Yes.
Moreover, for a science writer dealing with the most indelicate of subjects, Roach fills her prose with style and wit. You hear her thoughts when contemplating a room of heads in shallow aluminum roasting pans awaiting a seminar of plastic surgeons. (No, they aren't embalmed because the flesh would act differently if filled with formaldehyde.)
Throughout, Roach has a keen understanding of the contributions of the dead. We learn about the University of Tennesse Medical Center, where bodies are left to bake in the sun, are buried in shallow graves, and otherwise left to rot in an effort to understand decomposition and pinpoint time of death. Just north of there at the University of Michigan, cadavers are subject to simulated crash tests to develop better air bags and seat belts.
Going west to Carlsbad, CA, Roach meets with injury analysts who study autopsy reports of plane crash victims in order to determine the cause of a crash. Reports involving victims of Pam Am 800, which blew apart near Long Island, indicated that they died of "extreme water impact." The lack of "highly-fragmented bodies" indicated that the plane was not bombed or hit with a missle.
Wondering how far you can fall and not die of "extreme water impact?" Less than 500 feet, and it's best if you hit the water feet first. See, she's on top of everything...
Back to Tennessee, Roach interviews individuals at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In addition to the Manhattan Project, they also test ammunition with human tissue simulant, a gelatin substance. (Tune into Myth Busters, and you're likely to see this. Most interesting.)
Roach wraps up the book with stories of head transplants, crucifixion research, cremation and forms thereof, composting, brain donation, and cannibalism. Alas, the press date was too early to include the German penis cannibal story. Schade.
The book ends with the story of plastification, a process developed by a German professor that essentially preserves tissue forever. A traveling exhibit of plastificated bodies has been making the rounds in Europe and elsewhere but has yet to be exhibited in the U.S.
My mother and I both took issue with at least one surplus chapters and a few off topics, but we both agreed this was an interesting read. Not for the squeemish.
