Image by: Seth Shostak
Grave Matters
The science of death: why animals die, and how we might one day cheat the Big Sleep with drugs. Read the full description.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
We could choose not to pay income tax and suffer the consequences. But we can’t avoid death. The biological functions of all organisms eventually cease. But why should this be? Find out why animals die and meet one creature that is biologically immortal.
Plus, a trip to the Body Farm where decaying bodies help science…how we might cheat the Big Sleep with drugs… why Mexican cemeteries look like villages… and a doctor’s fight against one of the world’s deadliest diseases.
Guests:
- Bill Bass – Forensic Anthropologist, founder of the University of Tennessee Forensic Research Facility. Author of Beyond the Body Farm: A Legendary Bone Detective Explores Murders, Mysteries, and the Revolution in Forensic Science
and fiction written under the pen name Jefferson Bass. The latest: Bones of Betrayal: A Body Farm Novel
- Stanley Brandes – - Cultural Anthropologist, University of California, Berkeley, author of Skulls to the Living, Bread to the Dead: The Day of the Dead in Mexico and Beyond
- Matt Kaeberlein – Pathologist, University of Washington
- Ross Donaldson – Doctor and author of The Lassa Ward
Broadcast History
first aired 8/3/09
Additional Credits
Seth Shostak - Host and Producer
Molly Bentley - Co-Host and Executive Producer
Gary Niederhoff - Assistant Producer
Barbara Vance - Production Assistant
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