Archive for the ‘Death + Biology’ Category
The (Death) Singularity is Near
17, Jun 2010Merely Human? That’s So Yesterday Ashlee Vance, The New York Times (June 13, 2010) The Singularity movement sees a time when human beings and machines will merge and overcome illness and perhaps death. The tagline for this New York Times article is only partially correct. The Singularity movement and another group called the Transhumanists see [...]
- By: John
- In: Death + Biology|Death + Technology|Death Ethics
- Tags: bioethics, definition of death
Murder?! The Maggots Are on It
11, Jun 2010Crime Scene Insects BBC World Service (June 11, 2010) This episode of BBC Documentaries explores forensic entomology: “the investigation of insects recovered from crime scenes and corpses.” Guests include Amoret Whitaker of the Natural History Museum in London, who studies the flies and maggots that congregate on corpses to find clues about the time and [...]
- By: Meg Holle
- In: Death + Biology|Death + Crime
- Tags: animals, anthropology, death and smell, decomposition, forensics, homicide, research
Chimpanzees and their Dead Relatives
30, Apr 2010Chimps’ Emotional Response to Death Caught on Film Ian Sample, The Guardian (April 26, 2010) Chimps ‘feel death like humans’ BBC News (April 26, 2010) We humans have a peculiar relationship with chimpanzees. On the one hand, we like to understand ourselves in terms of chimp behaviors: tool making, group cohesion, even DNA. On the [...]
- By: John
- In: Death + Biology|Grief + Mourning
- Tags: animals, video
Lolcats? No, Death Cat.
11, Feb 2010The story of Oscar, the “Death Cat”, is making the rounds these days. From articles in Discover and the New England Journal of Medicine, to an episode of House to a recent posting on this Danish death-related blog, AND a newly published book, this cat gets around—but only if you’re about to die! Oscar is [...]
- By: Kim
- In: Death + Biology
- Tags: animals, death and smell, pets
Mr. Freeze
28, Jan 2010The January 25 issue of the New Yorker features an amusing article about cryopreservation of bodies, a.k.a. cryogenics or cryonics. The article doesn’t so much shed light on the science of this controversial procedure; but rather, it spotlights Robert C.W. Ettinger, one of the founders of the cryonics movement. The ninety-one year old Ettinger gives [...]
- By: Kim
- In: Afterlife|Death + Biology|Death + Technology|Death Ethics|Defying Death
- Tags: books, cryonics, immortality