Zombie masters move into the 21st century
Oak Ridge scientists identify thirty distinct compounds emitted from rotting bodies; data will help train dogs, but cunning investors may see opportunities for handheld sensor devices; report recalls a fingerscanning device intended for the deceased
Here is something for the zombie masters among us. Researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory have isolated thirty different compounds specifically linked to buried corpses — a boon, they say, to grave robbers (recall our report that even humans can track scents) and to cadaver-sniffing dogs. In the future, the researchers hope, the technology could be applied to electronic sensors. The goal is speed: “The faster you can find graves, the more evidence you can recover,” explained lab anthropologist Arpad Vass, noting that he envisions a handheld device that sucks in graveyard air and uses sensors to analyze the chemical content.
(This is not our first report on technology dealing with dead bodies. Readers may recall our discussion late last year of a PDA-based device, developed by researchers at the University of Leicester, the Leicester Constabulary, and the University of Hamburg, which was proven succesful in obtaining useful fingerprints from corpses.)
The study was conducted with volunteer corpses, which were buried in various states of decay at the University of Tennessee. Perforated pipes above and below the graves were used to collect gasses — a total of 478 — for later analysis in the lab. “It’s not a pleasant smell,” Vass said. “You never get used to it.” In the ongoing project, scientists have found odors detectable from corpses even after seventeen years. “Even bone has odor,” Vass said. “You can even tell apart different species of animals based on the odor.”
-read more in this LiveScience report
