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Friday, October 09, 2020

This Is What It's Like At A Body Farm, Where The Dead Are Left To Rot For Science

In the middle of the woods, just a few miles from Alcoa Highway in Tennessee, you may come across a 1-hectare (2.5-acre) plot surrounded by a razor-wire fence. 

The plot, which we'd highly advise you don't enter if you're squeamish, is home to the world's first "body farm", where human bodies are left to rot in the open, locked in trunks of cars, or submerged in water, all watched closely by scientists to see what happens next. 
-Abby

15 comments:

  1. > Col. Shy, and his body had been well-preserved due to the tight seal of his iron casket.

    Nothing beats a tight seal. Just ask Nanook.

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  2. There is one in the U.P. of Mich., where they observe what cold weather does to dead bodies.

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  3. Jefferson Bass, a mystery writer, has about eight or ten books all relating to The Body Farm. They are pretty good reads if you like that sort of thing. Obviously, I do.

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  4. There was an episode of "Dirty Jobs" that covered this exact topic. Mike Rowe gagged a couple of times.

    Jim Gates

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  5. Is it possible to contribute a few thousand Anti Fa and BLM soys? I know there would be a long line of people volunteering to help gather up the specimens.

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    1. I really expect to see them wheeling old Nancy into the woods pretty soon. What a jublient day that will be for Americans! Trump, out of his graciousness, probably would make available The Beast for the mission, but it would have to be decontaminated immediately afterwards. On second thought, save it for Hillary.

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    2. With all the preservatives they consume, I doubt that any of them will rot at all.

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  6. Forensics is an interesting field, no pun intended ☺
    Neighbouring property values - zero...

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  7. As a son of a hunter and outdoorsman, I learned at a young age what a animal body goes through after death. I have seen cows up close that were in various stages of rot and NO they don't become mummified in Texas. (fucking dumbass millennials)

    Maybe these highly trained whatever they are should have played outside and witnessed the stages of life with all kinds of animals and plants, instead of playing video games 24/7.
    Millennial pukes

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  8. I bet those folks who donated their body to science never anticipated THAT.

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  9. My grandmother's brother donated his remains there years ago because he was too cheap to pay for a funeral plot.

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  10. I took an anthropology 101 class at UT over 30 years ago and Dr Bass (the guy that started the Body Farm) taught it. He was a cool guy who would add in "bonus" material related to various research and forensic work he'd done for the police. The bonus stuff wasn't on the test and was optional, and he did warn the squeamish to leave if that bothers you. Then the slideshow would start, like a slasher movie but real.
    Seeing what someone looks like who got caught in the doorway of a burning mobile home and didn't escape while the whole thing burned down, well you won't forget it but you'd probably like to.

    The razor wire fence around the Body Farm? They needed that once the campus fraternities heard about it. "Pledges, you have one hour to get a dead guy onto the Delta house's lawn!"
    He had a wicked sense of black humor, coping mechanism I guess, and would toss out some zingers while explaining what he was showing on the slides.

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    1. Thanks for pointing out that this is not new. I always like the acronym for Bass Anthropological Research Facility. Some excellent references: Bones by Dr. Douglas Ubelaker, Dead Men Do Tell Tales by William Maples, Death's Acre by Dr. Bill Bass.
      And absolutely, reading this fascinating stuff is as close as I care to get to the subject.

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  11. Well I can tell you what a months immersion in the Potomac river around Washington DC in the early 1970s did to a body. Particularly as I walked along the riverbank tripped over a rock and nearly fell into a. Not one of my better memories.

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