I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts  of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
Icky stuff and then dust as the icky stuff dries out 😉
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Yeah, it’s definitely icky!
You would probably end up as a puddle, and then a pile of dust!
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If you were put straight into the ground, with no preservatives or coffin, you would mostly turn into dirt. That’s what worms, bacteria, and fungi are there for. But that’s not usually how we bury people…
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Biological organisms are made up of water and other molecules in our tissues (mostly the elements carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and phosphorus but also metals/minerals).
The process of decomposition “taphonomy” involves the gradual break down of all the tissue systems that made up an organism. This is sped up by bacteria and other organisms called ‘detritivores’. These organisms help to digest biological material (similar in some ways to digestion in our gut) into basic molecules such as protein and minerals – what we call “rotting”.
There are 5 stages in decomposition: fresh, bloat, active and/or advanced decay, and dry remains, but no two organisms decompose exactly the same way – it depends on how the organisms died, what microorganisms are present and the temperature in which decomposition takes place. Some of the stages can be skipped as Egyptians demonstrated through the ‘mummification”.
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The green icky & smell stuff is very tasty to flies. This is very useful to forensic scientists. The presence of insects in a decaying body is a critical clue towards estimating the time of death. Flies lay their eggs in the body & the larvae hatch into the rotting flesh & grow into pupa & then into adult flies. This process takes 10 days & forensic scientists look for presence of each fly stage (eggs, larvae or pupa) on & in the body to work how long the person has been dead for.
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