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- Dec 27, 2016
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The Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research with the convenient acronym of AFTER. (A body farm studies the five stages of human decompositon.)
Opened 2016 with thirty donated bodies. Now there are 850 pledged.
"I will be out there daily tracking the odour, and figuring out what decomposition smells like, and how dogs can track that. I will trap the odours and take that to the dogs for training.
"Someone has to speak for the dead. "
Shari Forbes
"The entomologist will be there, tracking insects and their larvae.
"The archaeologist may be collecting evidence, such as textiles and clothing.
"The anthropologists are interested in soft and hard tissue – they are particularly interested in the weathering of bones and teeth.
"The biologist are out there taking samples for DNA so everyone has their little piece of the jigsaw."
Even specialists in isotypes examine what environmental aspects affect our decomposition. Scientists will also research what affects the deterioration of human DNA, and how long it takes for lesser known viruses in our corpses to die.
Why can't we use information gathered from body farms overseas?
"It is not just the climate that impacts decomposition," said Forbes who has worked with police trying to find and identify bodies in Sydney, Perth, the United States and Canada. "It is also the ecology; the type of insects; those are different from North America; the geology; and us being an island is very different from North America."
The smell of human remains is also determined by our cultures and what we eat. What is the distinct smell of Australian remains? Suntan lotion and surf, and all the foods that migrants have brought, we hazard.
Smells are important at big crash sites and emergencies. Currently sniffer dogs are trained to search for the living, often using scraps of their clothing. Cadaver dogs are trained to search for the dead, using chemical odours developed by forensic scientists like Forbes.
Yet nobody knows how long an individual's distinct live smell lasts. "We don't know when the unique living scent changes into a decomposition scent." To find out, her researchers will be trapping odours from the living to track how it changes in death. This information could help police determine whether to use dogs that scent for the living or the dead following mass disasters and other tragedies.
Opened 2016 with thirty donated bodies. Now there are 850 pledged.
"I will be out there daily tracking the odour, and figuring out what decomposition smells like, and how dogs can track that. I will trap the odours and take that to the dogs for training.
"Someone has to speak for the dead. "
Shari Forbes
"The entomologist will be there, tracking insects and their larvae.
"The archaeologist may be collecting evidence, such as textiles and clothing.
"The anthropologists are interested in soft and hard tissue – they are particularly interested in the weathering of bones and teeth.
"The biologist are out there taking samples for DNA so everyone has their little piece of the jigsaw."
Even specialists in isotypes examine what environmental aspects affect our decomposition. Scientists will also research what affects the deterioration of human DNA, and how long it takes for lesser known viruses in our corpses to die.
Why can't we use information gathered from body farms overseas?
"It is not just the climate that impacts decomposition," said Forbes who has worked with police trying to find and identify bodies in Sydney, Perth, the United States and Canada. "It is also the ecology; the type of insects; those are different from North America; the geology; and us being an island is very different from North America."
The smell of human remains is also determined by our cultures and what we eat. What is the distinct smell of Australian remains? Suntan lotion and surf, and all the foods that migrants have brought, we hazard.
Smells are important at big crash sites and emergencies. Currently sniffer dogs are trained to search for the living, often using scraps of their clothing. Cadaver dogs are trained to search for the dead, using chemical odours developed by forensic scientists like Forbes.
Yet nobody knows how long an individual's distinct live smell lasts. "We don't know when the unique living scent changes into a decomposition scent." To find out, her researchers will be trapping odours from the living to track how it changes in death. This information could help police determine whether to use dogs that scent for the living or the dead following mass disasters and other tragedies.
