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Bill Bass,Jon Jefferson

Beyond the Body Farm

An “excellent” collection of case studies and stories from the forensic anthropologist who founded Tennessee’s “Body Farm” (Charleston Post & Courier).
A pioneer in forensic anthropology, Bill Bass created the world’s first laboratory dedicated to the study of human decomposition—three acres on a Tennessee hillside where human bodies are left to the elements. His research at the Body Farm has revolutionized the field, helping crack cold cases and pinpoint time of death. But during a forensics career that spans half a century, Bass’s work has ranged far beyond the gates of the Body Farm. In this riveting book, the bone sleuth explores the rise of modern forensic science, using fascinating cases he’s worked on to take readers into the real world of C.S.I.
Some cases rely on the simplest of tools and techniques, such as reassembling—from battered torsos and a stack of severed limbs—eleven people hurled skyward by an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory. Other cases hinge on sophisticated techniques Bass couldn’t have imagined when he began his career: harnessing scanning electron microscopy to detect trace elements in knife wounds, or extracting DNA from a long-buried corpse, only to find that the murder victim may have been mistakenly identified a quarter-century before.
Beyond the Body Farm follows Bass as he explores the depths of a lake with a twenty-first-century sonar system in search of an airplane that vanished thirty-five years ago; exhumes a fifties pop star to determine what injuries he suffered in the plane crash that killed three rock and roll legends; and works to decipher an ancient Persian death scene. Witty and engaging, Bass dissects the methods used by homicide investigators every day on an extraordinary journey into the high-tech science that it takes to crack a case.
“Case studies and anecdotes from the field of corpse identification [with] careful attention to detail and the occasional darkly humorous aside.” —Publishers Weekly
“The real crimes and mysteries here are just as or more intriguing than any fictional crime drama . . . offers a real-life understanding of forensic anthropology and the science behind it.” —Knoxville News-Sentinel
353 бумажные страницы
Дата публикации оригинала
2009
Год выхода издания
2009
Издательства
HarperCollins, HarperCollins e-books
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Впечатления

  • Мариделится впечатлением6 лет назад
    👍Worth reading
    💡Learnt A Lot
    🎯Worthwhile

    Great! Wish there were more books like this one.

Цитаты

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    If you close your hand into a fist and you hit a person really hard, you’re likely to fracture one or more of the bones that fan out through your hand. Those bones are the metacarpals, and this type of metacarpal fracture is called a “boxer’s fracture,” since the most common way of getting one is to punch someone really hard.
  • Марицитирует6 лет назад
    When someone drowns, or when a body is thrown into a lake or river, the corpse often sinks initially. Eventually, though, as the body’s own acids and enzymes begin to digest it from the inside out, the process of decomposition creates gases as a by-product. During the “bloat” stage of decomposition, these gases build up in the abdomen, causing it to swell…and transforming a submerged body into what is commonly called a “floater.” In earlier times, people believed that firing a cannon near the site of a drowning could cause the victim’s body to rise to the surface.
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