In the first episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, fictional entomologist Gil Grissom arrived at a crime scene and used tweezers to pull a maggot out of a dead body. Within moments, he announced that the age of the maggot indicated that the body had been dead for seven days. The same approach applies in … Read more
6:39Scientists try to unravel the case of 1,300 mysteriously preserved human brains Oxford University’s Alexandra Morton-Hayward spends her days surrounded by brains — literally. The undertaker-turned-scientist is trying to unravel why some human brains remain remarkably well-preserved after death, sometimes for thousands of years, even when all other soft tissue has long decayed. And anyone … Read more
From his home office in West Yorkshire, England, Richard Hemsley flips through a folder of papers. He decides on one, then looks up. “I’ll read it to you, if I put my glasses on,” he says. When he’s adjusted his frames, he starts the letter of condolences about his grandfather, Lt. Francis Hemsley. “He was in … Read more
As It Happens6:24Great apes get a kick out of ‘playfully teasing’ each other, study finds What do you call it when a chimpanzee offers his buddy a delicious piece of fruit only to pull his hand away at the last second? Or when a bonobo repeatedly pokes, prods and pulls on the hair of an … Read more
Anyone who’s experienced the heartbreak of a relationship ending knows it can be emotionally devastating. But scientists have found that a breakup also has physical effects on our brains — and our bodies. In Love Hurts: The Science of Heartbreak, a documentary from The Nature of Things, Anthony Morgan speaks with researchers and scientists to … Read more
