What I Learned This Weekend

Happy Top-Five Tuesday!

This last weekend, I took some time to read through a couple of my Mary Roach books. She’s the author of Stiff (bodies used in science/medicine, and what happens after you die), Bonk (the science of sex), and a couple others. If you ever get the chance to check them out, I recommend them. Very interesting reads.

I’m always interested in learning something new and exciting, and reading her books is the perfect opportunity for that. So, here are the five most interesting things I found in a couple of her books:

1. Being buried, and decomposing, is yucky. Obviously, we already know this, but no one likes to think about it. Your brains liquefy and bubble out through your mouth and ears. Even if you’re preserved well, and in a very expensive coffin, it’s still going to happen. A better alternative is cremation, which still isn’t pretty, but at least happens much faster. My only hang-up here, by the way, is that I can’t imagine anyone really wants a torched dead body (even if it is in a nice container) sitting on their mantel. And scattering the ashes (which will still have teeth and bone bits in them) isn’t as pretty as the movies make it out to be.
2. An alternative (as soon as it becomes available in the US) is promession. Your body is freeze-dried, shattered with sound waves, and then placed in a biodegradable box. This box is then used to fertilize a memorial tree. Assuming that no one chops the tree down later on, you get to live on, in a manner of speaking, as a tree or shrub. I wouldn’t recommend asking to have a fruit or nut tree as your memorial tree, though. That’s just… yeah. This is my new favorite post-death option. Currently, it’s really only available in the UK and Scotland.
3. If you donate your body to medicine, your skin may be used to help cute little children with horrible burn scars. It also might be processed and used for male enhancement. Your head might be used as practice for cosmetic surgeons. If you donate to science, your head might be used to make sure that non-lethal bullets are really non-lethal. Although these are all important (except maybe the male enhancement— sorry, guys), I’m thinking that I prefer just donating my organs and leaving it at that.
4. In some cultures, “wet” sex (where the woman is naturally lubricated) is considered gross and unclean. To solve the problem, these women use ash, shredded newspaper, tree bark, and other materials to dry themselves out before sex. Ouch. However, it is worth noting that super-absorbent tampons can dry out your vagina enough to actually cause the top layer of skin to peel away.
5. There is a college in Tennessee whose forensic program is… unique. Behind the school, there is a hill covered in dead bodies. The students study how the bodies decompose, and how different factors can affect that. Does it matter if the body has clothes on? What bugs show up? How does weather affect things? This is wonderful, because the students can then use this information for actual victims, but the thought of a hill of dead people is a little strange. Interesting, though.

Today’s bonus: If your plane breaks apart while crossing the ocean, the speed that your body is going to hit the water at is enough to rupture your aorta, break most of your ribs, and knock all of your clothes off. Most over-water plane crash victims are found naked. Which means either they all died happy, or they hit the water with a heck of a splash.

If you’re wondering why most of my interesting facts have to do with death, I should mention that, before becoming a mom, I was pursuing a career in forensic psychology. I’ve taken a lot of criminal justice courses, and I’ve read a lot of books on violent crime, and the state that victims are often found in. I also watch a lot of those medical examiner/forensic TV shows. This stuff just fascinates me. Which might be a little messed up, but there it is.

Tagged as: my thoughts