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Tell me about your body farm.

It鈥檚 a rural environment where donated bodies are placed on the ground or in shallow graves and allowed to decompose naturally 鈥� for research purposes. We opened in February and we already have six bodies at the facility.

Can you describe the place?

It is 12 acres of land surrounded by a high-security fence with many CCTV cameras installed. There鈥檚 a small building on the site but most of it is just rough ground.

Why are there so many CCTV cameras?

We鈥檙e aware that some people might get curious, so we made sure it鈥檚 a high-security facility. It is important to preserve the dignity of our donors. The only people who can visit are those who have a reason to be there, such as researchers or police for training.

Did you have any trouble getting the body farm set-up?

It鈥檚 been three years in the making. We needed three things to set it up: land in a remote yet accessible location, a body donation programme, and approval to build it. It was the approval process that took the most time. It was a challenge for the local council, but they were willing to work with us to make sure everyone was happy with the outcome.

Even though it is remote, our facility sits in a small community, and the council sought feedback from our neighbours. We made sure that people were aware of what we were doing and allayed any concerns they might have. For example, we had to show that they wouldn鈥檛 be affected by odours or increased insect activity. Some were concerned about the potential impact on the value of their homes.

Are people keen to donate their bodies?

More than 100 people have signed up, of all ages. Of course, we hope we won鈥檛 see them any time soon!

We also have a donor programme that allows a person鈥檚 body to be donated by their next of kin, and that鈥檚 where our first few donors have come from. The next of kin might be a husband, a wife, a son or daughter, or a parent. We ask that they can demonstrate the person truly wanted to donate. Often people want to, they talk about it while alive or write it into their will, but they haven鈥檛 signed our consent form.

We鈥檝e actually had to turn away half a dozen bodies because we weren鈥檛 expecting such a good response. We don鈥檛 want to accept donors unless we have specific research that we are ready to do with their bodies.

What makes people donate their bodies?

Many people sign up because they like the idea of their body returning to the earth in a natural way. They like the idea of it being environmentally sustainable. Not all parts of a coffin decompose.

When would-be donors ask what happens to a body left out in the open, what do you say?

I don鈥檛 usually go into too much detail, but some of them have already looked it up on the internet. If they do ask, I鈥檓 happy to talk about it. There are . The first, which we call 鈥渇resh鈥�, covers the few hours immediately after death. The second stage is referred to as 鈥渂loat鈥�. That鈥檚 where the enzymes and the microbes in the body start to degrade the internal organs, producing a lot of gases and distending the torso. Following that is 鈥渁ctive decay鈥�, when our body turns from a solid into a liquid. The fourth stage is 鈥渁dvanced decay鈥�, when you dry out. Finally, you have 鈥渟keletonisation鈥�, when there鈥檚 really just bone left.

Do all bodies go through these stages of decomposition?

No, there are lots of things that can change the process and the rate of decomposition. In our particular location, we鈥檙e finding that bodies don鈥檛 go through all of the stages. The dry environment dries out the body very rapidly, so the final stage we see is mummification.

Is differing climate the reason there鈥檚 a need for body farms in different parts of the world?

Decomposition is mainly driven by environmental variables, but it鈥檚 not just climate. It includes the bacteria in that environment, the insects, the larger scavengers and carnivores. There are now eight facilities in the US because all of those parameters change considerably across the country. It鈥檚 the same for Australia. This is our first facility but we would like to have more so that we can get much more accurate data about the ways a body can decompose, or be preserved through mummification.

Your work is mostly about odours produced during decomposition. Why is smell important?

The police use smell to find bodies. The challenge is to understand what chemicals make up particular odours and use this information to train victim-recovery dogs to locate human remains. There are hundreds of compounds behind the different smells, but a few show up in every stage of decomposition. We suspect that those are the key ones that dogs recognise. Once we know what the key compounds are, and at what concentration dogs detect them, we can better train dogs to focus on them. Such discoveries will also help us clarify what dogs can and can鈥檛 do. Is it feasible for them to find a body shut in a car or sealed in a barrel? Can they find bones that are 30 years old? We use dogs all the time but we don鈥檛 really know the answers.

You were involved in a project to build an electronic nose to detect these compounds. How did that go?

Ultimately, we realised that dogs鈥� noses are hugely more sensitive than any instrument we could ever design 鈥� and probably will be for a very long time.

How did you get into this line of research?

I visited a body farm in Tennessee when I was a postdoctoral fellow doing research using pig remains as an analogue for humans. Seeing Tennessee made me realise I needed to use human bodies. You see things with human remains that you don鈥檛 see with pigs. The rate of decomposition can be quite different, and that鈥檚 important because we use that to estimate time of death. And with pigs I would quite clearly see the five stages I described, but with humans, you might see the first two stages and then go straight to mummification.

鈥淥ur environment dries bodies rapidly, so the final stage is mummification鈥�

Why do humans decompose differently to pigs?

We鈥檙e still trying to understand many of the reasons, as few people have done a direct comparison between pig and human remains. There鈥檚 obviously a difference in body mass. Some of the soft tissues are similar, but human and pig fats are different and don鈥檛 degrade in the same way. And think about the extremities 鈥� our arms and legs are much longer, and contain more tissue and bone.

Was your visit to Tennessee the first time you had seen human remains?

As an undergraduate in forensics I had investigated why bodies weren鈥檛 decomposing in part of a cemetery in Sydney, which involved exhumation of human remains. The difference was that I鈥檇 seen them in a cemetery environment, encased in coffins and deeply buried. Seeing lots of unburied bodies decomposing in a very small area certainly gave me a different perspective, but my forensic training helped me keep an emotional distance from it.

Has your work changed your own attitude towards death?

I don鈥檛 think so. I have no trouble talking about death: I can talk to my family about it. It鈥檚 a natural conversation for me to have, which I think is probably not typical of most people. However, once I tell people what I do they always have a morbid curiosity. Maybe that鈥檚 what drew my interest to this area. I鈥檓 just trying to know the unknown.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淟ife amid death at the body farm鈥�