Stiff: The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers"One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year....Gross, educational, and unexpectedly sidesplitting."—Entertainment Weekly Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand 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 heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way. In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries—from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them. |
Contents
Introduction | 9 |
CRIMES OF ANATOMY | 37 |
LIFE AFTER DEATH | 61 |
DEAD MAN DRIVING | 87 |
BEYOND THE BLACK BOX | 113 |
THE CADAVER WHO JOINED THE ARMY | 131 |
HOLY CADAVER | 157 |
HOW TO KNOW IF YOURE DEAD | 167 |
JUST A HEAD | 199 |
EAT ME | 221 |
OUT OF THE FIRE INTO THE COMPOST BIN | 251 |
REMAINS OF THE AUTHOR | 281 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Albert King anatomists anatomy lab animals Arpad arteries asked ballistic gelatin ballistics Barbet blood bones brain brain death bullets cadaver cadaver's called Car Crash cells chest Chinese coffin composting corpses crash test dummy cremation dead bodies death decay decomposing dissection doctor dogs donated donor embalming Evans eyes face feel flesh funeral gelatin going gross anatomy guillotine Haikou happen head heart transplant hospital human cadaver impact injuries inside Laborde legs less liver living look lungs medical school Medicine Mehmet Oz mellified mortuary named neck okay organs passengers patient percent person physician pieces pigs plane plastinated putrescine remains Ruth Richardson says seat Shanahan shot Shroud of Turin simulated skeleton skin skull smell someone sort soul stomach stop story surgeons surgery surgical tell Theo things tion tissue told White Whytt Wiigh-Masak woman wrote Zugibe
Popular passages
Page 302 - Read, Bernard E. Chinese materia medica. Animal drugs. From the Pen ts'ao kang mu by Li SHIH-CHEN, AD 1597. Reprinted from Peking Natural History Bulletin, 5, part 4, 37-80 and 6, pt. i, 1-102. Published by the Peking Natural History