To begin with, when your heart stops beating, your body’s cells and tissues stop receiving oxygen. Brain cells are the first to die — usually within three to seven minutes. Bone and skin cells can survive for several days. As the cells die, bacteria within the body begin breaking them down. Enzymes in the pancreas cause the organ to digest itself. The body soon takes on a gruesome appearance and smell. Decomposing tissue emits a green substance, as well as gasses such as methane and hydrogen sulfide. The lungs expel fluid through the mouth and nose.
Insects and animals certainly take notice of all this. A human body provides sustenance and a great place for insects to lay eggs. A fly can eat from a corpse, and then lay up to 300 eggs upon it that will hatch within a day.
Maggots — the larvae that emerge from these eggs — are extremely efficient and thorough flesh-eaters. Starting on the outside of the body where they hatched, maggots use mouth hooks to scoop up the fluids oozing out of the corpse. Maggots spread enzymes that help turn the body into goo. Maggots can consume up to 60% of a human body in under seven days
The environment in which a dead body is placed also affects its rate of decay. For instance, bodies in water decompose twice as fast as those left unburied on land. Decomposition is slowest underground — especially in clay or other solid substances that prevent air from reaching the body since most bacteria require oxygen to survive.
As for the ickiest thing i’ve seen, i can say that tumours are rather disgusting looking, and there have been some from humans and mice alike that have made my stomach churn. I made a point of not eating until after i had processed samples because after cutting up a few tumours my stomach was not happy at all, and food didnt help that at all. But then I have a fairly weak stomach for this sort of thing, which is why i never did medicine
Decomposition begins at the moment of death, caused by two factors: autolysis which is the breaking down of tissues by the body’s own internal chemicals and enzymes, and putrefaction which is the breakdown of tissues by bacteria.
I try my best to not being disgusted by anything especially in my research.
To begin with, when your heart stops beating, your body’s cells and tissues stop receiving oxygen. Brain cells are the first to die — usually within three to seven minutes. Bone and skin cells can survive for several days. As the cells die, bacteria within the body begin breaking them down. Enzymes in the pancreas cause the organ to digest itself. The body soon takes on a gruesome appearance and smell. Decomposing tissue emits a green substance, as well as gasses such as methane and hydrogen sulfide. The lungs expel fluid through the mouth and nose.
Insects and animals certainly take notice of all this. A human body provides sustenance and a great place for insects to lay eggs. A fly can eat from a corpse, and then lay up to 300 eggs upon it that will hatch within a day.
Maggots — the larvae that emerge from these eggs — are extremely efficient and thorough flesh-eaters. Starting on the outside of the body where they hatched, maggots use mouth hooks to scoop up the fluids oozing out of the corpse. Maggots spread enzymes that help turn the body into goo. Maggots can consume up to 60% of a human body in under seven days
The environment in which a dead body is placed also affects its rate of decay. For instance, bodies in water decompose twice as fast as those left unburied on land. Decomposition is slowest underground — especially in clay or other solid substances that prevent air from reaching the body since most bacteria require oxygen to survive.
As for the ickiest thing i’ve seen, i can say that tumours are rather disgusting looking, and there have been some from humans and mice alike that have made my stomach churn. I made a point of not eating until after i had processed samples because after cutting up a few tumours my stomach was not happy at all, and food didnt help that at all. But then I have a fairly weak stomach for this sort of thing, which is why i never did medicine
0
Decomposition begins at the moment of death, caused by two factors: autolysis which is the breaking down of tissues by the body’s own internal chemicals and enzymes, and putrefaction which is the breakdown of tissues by bacteria.
I try my best to not being disgusted by anything especially in my research.
0