Posts Tagged ‘corpses’
Florida Funeral Home First to Debut Alternative to Cremation: Liquefaction
Created by a Glaswegian company, the Resomator submerges bodies in a potassium hydroxide solution in its steel chamber, then pressurizes (to about ten atmospheres) and heats (to over 350 degrees F) the solution for about three hours. After that, the resulting liquid is simply poured into the regular sewage system--it apparently poses no environmental risk and has passed Florida's undoubtedly strict laws for this sort of bio-disposal. Bones remain and are pulverized to ash in the usual way, and any metal bits (including mercury and any prostheses) are retained to be disposed of or recycled in a more responsible way.
Florida is just one of seven states that has legalized the Resomator, but it may catch on in others. The president of Resomation Ltd, the company behind the device, says it emits a third less greenhouse gas and uses a mere seventh of the energy of a cremation device, let alone the benefits of safe extraction of mercury and other metals. The company seems hopeful that its macabre but useful creation will soon receive approval in its native U.K..
[]
New Corpse-Detection System Finds Where the Bodies Are Buried
Before they go tearing up the ground in search of a body, authorities often want to be sure about what lies beneath. Typically, tests of soil around a suspected grave site involve extracting samples and shipping them to a lab for testing, which is expensive and time-consuming.
The new system, designed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, consists of a slender probe that can simply be stuck in the ground to pull in air samples. It can even detect bodies buried beneath concrete, as long as you drill a 1/8-inch hole for the probe.
The system involves a small aluminum pipette that can detect trace amounts of a chemical called ninhydrin-reactive nitrogen, which collects in air pockets around a grave site. It's the only known example of testing the chemical in its vapor phase, NIST says. As an added bonus, the system works at ambient temperatures instead of freezing cold, which could make it easy to transport.
Chemists Thomas J. Bruno and Tara M. Lovestead tested it on dead rats, burying some in 3 inches of soil and laying others on top of the soil. For comparison, they also tested boxes with no dead rats in them. The NRN compound was still detectable after nearly five months, the researchers say. A paper on their findings was published in the journal Forensic Science International.
As of now, testing of the air samples still must be done in a lab, but Bruno is working on a portable device that can test for NRN in the field.
One would hope the demand for such technology would be limited, but NIST says it could help law enforcement officials find out where bodies are clandestinely buried.
[]