Researchers at outdoor "body farms" look to the microbes of human decay to help identify corpses and pinpoint time of death.
I know I’ve talked about mortuary methods that return the body to the earth before -- as compost, as trees -- so here’s ANOTHER fascinating method: you can donate your body to a Body Farm, and let researchers learn about decay by watching your rotting corpse!
This may not be everyone’s cup of tea, admittedly. It’s not quite as nice as thinking in terms of compost, or even being a tree, but it does do a great service. The more we understand about decay, the better all around -- but this is also useful for solving cases or murder, as well.
Do you want to help out with unsolved crimes, even after your death? This is your chance! Not to mention you’ll also be fostering an environment based upon your decay with fungus and other sorts of things. It’s a two-fold help!
This article gets into the details of how Body Farms began, how they’re used, and what has been learned from them. It’s a great read to understand more about decay, as well as to see how we are useful, even in our decay, to new life, and to the currently living.
