Stiff Free Pdf

ISBN: B0001O356G
Title: Stiff Pdf The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.

For two thousand years, cadavers (some willingly, some unwittingly) have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.

In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them.

First of all the good, I like the history and all the research ... First of all the good, I like the history and all the research she did. I love hearing about the history of death and mourning, the history of medical research and organ donation. I don't mind the "gross" stuff about human bodies or the "irreverence", that's the point of this book to explore these topics that we shy away from as a society. In fact I find it slightly annoying that she constantly emphasizes how weird people probably think she is for asking certain questions or how much she seems to coddle the reader about some of the more explicit parts of death and cadavers. What I really find disturbing is the many times she talks about the horrible, painful, and mostly useless studies that we've done on LIVING animals. She talks about dead bodies with respect, but the casual horrific details about puppies having their heads sown onto other living dogs only to suffer and die over a matter of days... I just didn't expect that and it was fairly depressing. The experimentation on living animals seemed to be kind of a joke to her and it started to make me sick to my stomach and sort of ruined an otherwise fascinating book.Morbid yet entertaining Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers is an example of a morbid topic turned into a page turning and ironically uplifting read. Stiff is very informative on the history and uses of cadavers while also providing entertainment through Roach’s unique style of writing. Additionally, the book contains numerous gory stories about blood and death, but the real meat of the book is in Roach’s main point of the history and uses of cadavers. She uses real examples of scientists and researchers performing horrific operations on human remains in order to learn the anatomy of our complex species. The chapters are deliberate and in depth and they address a wide range of topics from impact studies for car safety to human composting as a new means of disposal. Roach is additionally accommodating enough to include informative footnotes in places where the subject deviates from common knowledge. One of the best things about this book, besides just the mere content, is the witty style in which Roach employs. She seamlessly integrates jokes and humor into her writing of dead people without being the least bit disrespectful, in my opinion. To make its case, Stiff appeals to both medical interests in the surgeries described and to historical ones in its ample amount of sources on how humans first discovered how our anatomy was designed. The prominence of death in the book however does not lower its accomplishments by any means. If anything, death and dying opens up a new conversation of what to do after we die. The only piece of cautionary advice I have is that certain parts are a bit too bloody and gory, which may lead to sensitive readers not being able to read every page. To oversimplify, Stiff is one of a kind and can be thoroughly enjoyed no matter what medical expertise one has. While prior knowing of the book’s anatomy knowledge is useful in understanding the kind of value it has, it can be advantageous for a multitude of audiences.

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