Ashes to Ashes

Thousands of Microbes Break Down Bodies After Death

One of the mysteries about what happens to our body has been solved by science, sort of. A recent study done at the University of Colorado in Boulder took the bodies of deceased rodents and placed them in several different settings. This includes desert, aquatic, and other terrain types in the hope of exploring the microbes that break bodies down in each setting to help better pinpoint time of death for forensic science. Surprisingly, each location experienced the same microbes that led to decay in the bodies from the fungi to the bacteria each corpse had breaking it down appeared. This shows that there are precise microbes that are responsible for the decomposition of every body and determining the amounts at different stages will further benefit law enforcement as they begin to look for the time of death in a body.

Of course, this study is still in the early stages and more research is needed to gain a better understanding of this.

Original Article: http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/12/thousands-unexpected-microbes-break-down-our-bodies-after-death

Dust to dust” may not be God’s work so much as the enterprising efforts of soil microbes. But until now, little was known about how these tiny undertakers turn our bodies to dust. New research shows that, no matter where we’re buried, the same bacteria, fungi, and other small organisms in the soil ransack our bodies, as if they were just waiting for our corpses to arrive. The findings could have important implications for forensic science, including helping police better pinpoint time of death.