Thursday, August 28, 2008

Stiff By Mary Roach

For 2000 years, cadavers, some willingly, some unwittingly, have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the shroud of Turin and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from hear transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.;Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries, from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and 19th-century Europe, to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral director's conference of human composting. In doing so she tells the story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

More details

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
By Mary Roach
Published by W. W. Norton & Company, 2003
ISBN 0393324826, 9780393324822
303 pages

(Google Book Reader)

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