Mary Roach’s Stiff:
The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is the Science Section of the Tuesday
New York Times meets This American Life. In this exploration
of what happens to our bodies after we die, Roach eases us past the initial
gore into a story of wonder about the human corpse.
Human cadaver research in the auto industry has been around since the 1960’s.
The first few decades of study helped us learn how to save human lives in a
car crash; this work resulted in the three-pointed seat belt and the air bag.
The next phase of cadaver work is showing bioengineers how to save ankles, wrists,
and other parts of our extremities so that when we survive crashes, we can walk
and pick up our children.
As Dennis Shanahan, an injury analyst whose worked helped to explain why
TWA Flight 800 crashed into the Atlantic in 1996, points out in an interview with
Roach, as a human pathologist you can get used to the gore, but not the suffering.
Similarly, as a reader, I get used to the grisly, but can’t
get over the human body. I’ll never look at my own flesh quite the same
way.
See the VBT schedule to find a stop near you.
Digital Preservation
We take for granted that our cultural artifacts will last. This is why it
offends and horrifies us when we learn of decaying archaeological sites, looted
museums and burning libraries. But our digital heritage does not afford the
durability that we enjoy with cave paintings, cuneiform tablets, and even paper.
Web sites are disappearing and changing all the time.
Sadly, if you ask most digital content creators what their strategy for preserving
their material, they tell you that they have backup tapes or printouts. A wonderful
article in June 19th’s Economist
outlines why backups are not a preservation strategy.
