Reddit reviews Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

This has been done. A French scientist during the age of the guillotine would take the heads of freshly-executed prisoners and attach them to the bodies of dogs. The heads were pretty brain dead by the time he could get it hooked up though, as the state required that prisoners pass the gates of the cemetery before being public property. He did, however, find that the fresher heads could respond to the sound of their name. The head would inevitably be rejected by the dog's immune system though.
I read it in this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

This book detail the dog experiments and the resulting scientific discoveries.

For any who are interested, Mary Roach's book Stiff is a great, in-depth look at this subject, partially through the eyes of medical/lab students but from many other perspectives as well.

You're reading Stiff, aren't you? Hot damn, I loved that book!

Stiff.

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

> Basically people from Forensics dept's around the world come to America and dig up donated bodies then figure out what killed them..

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

Highly recommended book. Amusing, yet dealing with an interesting subject.

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

Everything you've ever wanted to know, and then some, about corpses.

Stiff, Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

You may want to read this just before Gross Anatomy.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers was incredibly humorous and I also learned a lot of gross and interesting facts I can never bring up at dinner parties.

Here is the technology I am familiar with:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promession

This was discussed in the book Stiff, with the legal issues being part of the discussion.

In the book "Stiff" They talk about this. Apparently, a brain transplant was performed with a monkey. Thing is, as sotek pointed out in another comment "When we transplant other organs, we mainly have to reconnect tubes (blood vessels, intestine, etc.)" So when they transplanted this monkey brain, they didn't connect it to anything except the blood vessels in this other monkey.

So it's kind of like plugging in a gaming system to a powersource and turning it on, but not connecting the monitor or the controls. The brain was "on" and alive, but no information was going in or out of it because all the nerves had been severed. They had an EEG connected to it, so they knew thoughts were being produced and the brain was still alive, there was just no way to know what exactly was going on. They suspected the monkey brain probably went insane with having no outside stimulation coming in.

I just finished The Emperor of All Maladies and just shortly before that Stiff. I really enjoyed both of them! Emperor is a long read, but well written and very thorough. Stiff is a quick, enjoyable read that's a less academic, but still really interesting. I'm about to start My Sister's Keeper. The PI across the hall recommended it. And I'm reading Introduction to Statistical Thought by Lavine for a class. I added a few of the books other people listed here to my to-read list

I highly recommend this book -- http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939 -- it's a very well researched discussion of all of the possibilities for cadavers. You'll be quite surprised at what "donating your body to science" can mean. My favorite part was the need for human bodies to calibrate crash-test dummies.

You can donate your face so aspiring plastic surgeons can reconstruct your dead nose -- see book Stiff. I want to be composted. I used to want my corpse dropped in an active volcano from a helicopter but that's totally impractical, probably not legal (but you can probably chop my parts up and get away with it).... not to mention it's such a to-do for someone who doesn't really think about the afterlife too much. Composting though, that sounds useful. David Cross will do this

Good book. Love Mary's stuff. Stiff is also great.

Stiff?

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about this and the history of cadavers/medicine/ethic of the dead while NOT being a med student. Highly humorous at times and very informative.

If any of you are further interested in the topic of burials and how we treat the dead, eco-friendly options, and/or the tradition of burial, I HIGHLY suggest Stiff, by Mary Roach. I had to read this for a Anthropology of Death class in college. It is an amazing read. Good stuff.

http://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393050939

Go read this book. I could care less what happens to my body. I'm gone. Same for you regardless of your beliefs your are done with your body when you die. Maybe somebody else can use parts. Become an organ donor and know that someday you may help someone after you're gone.