After death, the human body continues to move... for a year!
A few weeks after Halloween celebrations and a disconcerting scientific discovery is particularly chilling.
In Australia, a group of researchers from the AFTER (Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research) institute, whose aim was to analyze the decomposition of corpses, made an astonishing finding: “For up to a year after death, a person's body continues to ‘live’... or at least move,” reports ABC News.
Alyson Wilson, a criminology researcher at Central Queensland University, who led the research group, explains: “What we found was that the arms moved significantly."
For the purposes of the study, an institute answering to the name of “Human Body Farm” was specifically created. Every thirty minutes, for seventeen months, scientists observed the decomposition process of the bodies of 70 deceased people. It was then that they noticed that the arm of the deceased, which had been alongside the body, had moved away from the torso. The explanation? The movement was the result of ligaments shrinking and contracting.
This disconcerting discovery is very important for forensic scientists and medical examiners. It could shed light on the causes of certain deaths. Dr. Maiken Ueland, deputy director of the AFTER Institute, explains: “Knowing that body movements can result from the process of decomposition rather than scavenging (...) will be invaluable when it comes to determining what happened.”
A conclusion echoed by Alyson Wilson: “This research is very important to help law enforcement agencies solve crimes and investigate disasters.”
For the record, the same team of researchers had already made another major discovery previously. According to them, bodies mummify faster in winter than in summer.
(MH with JaG - Source: Maxisciences - Picture: Pixabay)
