The science of DEATH: Researchers reveal the gruesome details of what happens to our body when we pass away

Like it or not, you will die someday.

While various belief systems offer explanations for the metaphysical experiences that follow, what happens to your physical body after death is all just a matter of science – and, largely, it’s not pretty.

A video from AsapScience explains the processes that occur from the moment of death to the final stages of decomposition.  

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While various belief systems offer explanations for the metaphysical experiences that follow death, what happens to your physical body is a matter of science. A video from AsapScience explains the processes that occur from the moment of death to the final stages of decomposition

The news isn’t all bad, however; eventually, you just might end up among the flowers.

Science and medicine have found ways to prolong the imminence of death, but it’s still an inevitable end for every living being. 

Around the world, roughly 100 people die every minute.

Through simplified cartoons, the video explains what happens starting at the first few seconds after the body dies.

The first few hours

In the initial seconds after death, oxygen is quickly depleted and brain activity surges.

The neurons then cease operations, and the brain stops giving off hormones which regulate the different functions of the body, though some may carry on for a few minutes.

The remaining stores of ATP, which provides the energy for life, is used up, and the muscles relax.

This includes the sphincters (so there’s a strong possibility you will poop or pee yourself).

Dead bodies have gained notoriety for their pale complexion, especially visible in light skinned people.

This is the result of lack of blood flow, and becomes apparent 15-20 minutes after death.

The heart is no longer pumping and thus blood is not circulating, so gravity drags it down toward the ground, causing blood to pool at the lowest point of the body.

After a few hours, the body experiences red and purple discolouration from the settling blood.

By 12 hours after death, the body has reached maximum discolouration.

This process, known as ‘livor mortis’ helps coroners and forensic investigators determine the approximate time of death.

During this time, another process has also begun.

In the three to six hours after death, a phemomenon known as ‘rigor mortis’ begins to set in.

Cellular organelles deteriorate from the lack of energy, and leak calcium into muscle cells, which binds to protein and causes muscles to contract.

The muscles become stiff, leaving the body stuck in position for the next 24-48 hours.

At the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley, flesh-eating beetles are a common and effective tool to preserve rare species. Here, the beetles strip a snake to the bone

A MACABRE HISTORICAL TRADITION 

In footage from KQED, the animals preserved in the ‘library of life’ at the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley undergo a careful preservation process.

After the skin has been removed and samples collected, the bone needs to be cleaned of flesh. 

At the museum, researchers have found a way to speed up the decomposition process using something more accurate than human hands: flesh-eating beetles.

These beetles can be seen swarming the carcasses of snakes, owls, and other animals sent to the museum, eating any flesh remaining until nothing is left but the bone.

The practice is both morbid and efficient, and has been in use for many years.

The museum first established its colony of flesh-eating Dermestid beetles in 1924. 

Almost 100 years later, the direct descendants of the colony still work to clean museum specimens of the last traces of life before they are preserved in the halls of the library.

Dermestid beetles are both fast and precise in their work. 

A week after death, the beetles will lay eggs in the flesh of a corpse, and the fast-growing larvae, which will outgrow their skins six to eight times in a matter of days, soon emerge and consume all that remains.

The days following death

While these other processes are occurring, the body (if it hasn’t been chemically embalmed or otherwise preserved) has slowly been undergoing decomposition the entire time.

Cells in the body accumulate without proper blood flow, causing a rise in carbon dioxide gas, and a rise in the pH of tissues.

This weakens the cell membrane and they burst, spewing cytosol.

Cytosol contains proteins and enzymes, which breaks down the surrounding tissue, along with the help of more than 100 trillion microorganisms.

Then, the anaerobic bacteria (that which doesn’t need oxygen to survive) in the gastrointestinal tract eats through the abdominal organs.

This is a smelly process, known as putrefaction, and the foul odours released by the breakdown of amino acids attracts insects including mites, carrion beetles, and blowflies.

Blowflies then lay eggs in the rotting tissue, which hatch within a day. 

The larvae – maggots – then eat the tissue until they mature.

Putrefaction produces foul odours, released by the breakdown of amino acids which attracts insects including mites, carrion beetles (pictured right), and blowflies. Blowflies then lay eggs in the rotting tissue, which hatch within a day. The larvae, maggots, pictured left, then eat the tissue until they mature

Between 20-50 days after death, butyric fermentation takes place and attracts beetle larvae, protozoa, and fungi. This is known as dry decay, and can occur over the course of a year. Carrion beetles, pictured above, are used to remove flesh from bones during a skeleton preparation at the Natural History Museum in Vienna

The first few weeks

Maggots can consume 60 percent of the body’s tissue in just a few weeks, and the resulting holes release decomposition fluid and gas.

Between 20-50 days after death, butyric fermentation takes place and attracts beetle larvae, protozoa, and fungi.

This is known as dry decay, and can occur over the course of a year.

A year and beyond

Whatever remaining parts of the body are eaten away by plants and animals over the subsequent years, even the skeletal remains.

If the body is left entirely at the mercy of the elements, every aspect of the body will be broken down.

Then, the molecules are recycled in nature.

Whatever remaining parts of the body are eaten away by plants and animals over the subsequent years, even the skeletal remains. If the body is left entirely at the mercy of the elements, every aspect of the body will be broken down. Then, the molecules are recycled in nature

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE (SLASHER FILM STYLE)

In a Halloween themed video by the American Chemical Society last year, scientists explained exactly how your brain’s chemistry changes just before you’re killed by an axe murderer.

First, you’ll feel an intense sense of fear, which is an evolutionary response that gets you ready to react or run away.

The fear that results is thought to be controlled by a cluster of neurons that form the PVT, or paraventricular nucleus of something known as the thalamus.

Fear will startle you into reacting, which is when the fight or flight response is triggered which causes your adrenal glands to start pumping out adrenaline.

This raises your heart rate, sharpens senses and provides access to huge amounts of energy in order to cope with threats to survival.

At times, the threat is so intense it can cause a 'freeze' response.

This could be interpreted as the brain being overwhelmed, or it may have evolved as a way of keeping still to hide from predators.

If you do manage to get away from the axe murderer, you’ll probably start screaming.

Screams are mostly instinctive, and used to cause others to be fearful and react.

If the axe murderer catches up with you, you will likely feel severe pain.

When you’re injured, neurons called nociceptors send messages up to the brain.

Those are collected by the thalamus, which in tries to tell the brain to do whatever it can to stop the injury happening again.

But your brain keeps working. According to recent studies, the brain appears to undergo a final surge which can be associated with consciousness.

Then comes biological death.

 

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