Сохранность тела

Развивающейся криофирме требуется опытный тафоном

Умирание

Процесс умирания

смерть мозга - см. http://www.deathonline.net/what_happens/body/brain_death.cfm, и Книга Уолкер А. Э. Смерть мозга. М.:Медицина, 1988 (Есть у Жителева и Данилы)
клеточная смерть - Deprived of oxygen, a cascade of cellular death commences. It begins with brain cells and finishes with the skin cells.

Подробнее про умирание:

http://www.meduhod.ru/dying/umirajushchij.shtml (Терминальные состояния)

Повреждения мозга

Бен Бест опубликовал очень вдохновляющий текст (Minimizing Damage to Cryonics Patients) о повреждениях мозга криопациентов. Вдохновляющий потому, что эти повреждения намного меньше, чем принято считать. Эта статья рассчитана на неподготовленного читателя, все ссылки на литературу в его более продвинутой статье.

Всем критикам крионики тыкать в нос этим текстом (или ссылками на источники).

См. также статью Шелега в Обоснование
и еще есть статья Ischemic Cell Death in Brain Neurons - очень подробная статья на эту тему.

Разложение

Попсовая статья об изучении разложения в Newsweek.

Физиология смерти - 26 этапов смерти тела.

http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Death/Stages.html

Decomposition is the reduction of bodies and other formerly living organisms into simpler forms of matter and, most particularly, to the fate of the human body after death. The science which studies decomposition generally is called taphonomy.

A body will begin to decompose shortly after death. Decomposition can be simplified in two stages: In the first stage, human decomposition is limited to the production of vapors. In the second stage of human decomposition, fluidic materials form and the flesh begins to decompose.

Historically, the progression of human decomposition has been described as taking place in four stages:

fresh (autolysis)
bloat (putrefaction)
decay (putrefaction and carnivores)
dry (diagenesis).

Источник: http://web.archive.org/web/20051214084503/http://www.ogrish.com/archives/decomposing_body_found_in_karachi_pakistan_Oct_01_2005.html

The rate and the manner in which an animal body decomposes is strongly affected by a number of factors. In a roughly descending degree of importance, those factors include:

Temperature
The availability of oxygen
Prior embalming
Cause of death
Access by insects
Burial, and depth of burial
Access by scavengers
Trauma, including wounds and crushing blows
Humidity, or dryness
Rainfall
Body size and weight
Clothing
The surface on which the body rests

Generally an unembalmed adult body buried six feet deep in ordinary soil without a coffin normally takes ten to twelve years to decompose fully to a skeleton, given a temperate climate. A basic guide for the effect of environment on decomposition is given as Casper's Law (or Ratio). This states that when there is free access of air a body decomposes twice as rapidly than if immersed in water and eight times as rapidly than if buried in earth, a ratio of 1:2:8 for air, water and under pressure of earth respectively. The skeleton itself is not permanent; acids in soils can reduce it to unrecognisable components as well (this is one reason given for the lack of human remains found in the wreckage of the Titanic, even in parts of the ship considered inaccessible to scavengers). Freshly skeletonized bone is often called "green" bone and has a characteristic greasy feel. Under certain condition (normally cool, damp soil) bodies may undergo a process known as saponification and develop a waxy substance called adipocere, caused by the action of soil chemicals on the body's proteins and fats. The formation of adipocere slows decomposition by inhibiting the bacteria that cause putrefaction.

In extremely dry or cold conditions the normal process of decomposition is halted, by either lack of moisture or temperature controls on bacterial and enzymatic action, causing the body to be preserved as a mummy. Frozen mummies commonly restart the decomposition process when thawed whilst heat desiccated mummies remain so unless exposed to moisture.

Процесс разложения

См. http://web.archive.org/web/20060422050204/http://articles.ogrish.com/index.php/Decomposition

The Chronology of Decomposition

The following sequence of events represents in considerable detail the process of decomposition. This timetable would normally be followed in water with a temperature range of 65F to 75F.

Twelve to Twenty-Four Hours	The skin is the first to change color, from normal to light blue to an almost green discoloration. This color change usually occurs in the, lower quadrant first, being most noticeable in the area of the lower abdomen / pelvis / groin.
Twenty-Four to Thirty-Six Hours	The discoloration becomes quite pronounced, and the skin takes on a marbled pattern. The blood is now reacting with hydrogen sulfide, which has been produced within the blood vessels. This produces a characteristic dark green (almost black) discoloration. As putrefaction advances, the blood seeps from the blood vessels, giving the body a general purplish-black color.
Thirty-Six to Forty-Eight Hours	The face and trunk begin to swell noticeably, taking on the characteristic "bloated" appearance. The eyelids, lips, scrotum, and other sites where skin is loosely attached may become dramatically swollen and bloated. On palpation (feeling or manipulation) of these areas, crepitus (a feeling described as "rice crispies") is noticed.
Sixty to Seventy-Two Hours	Putrefaction has now spread to all areas of the body, including the fingers and toes. The entire body has now changed color, and facial features may become unrecognizable.
Four to Seven Days	Hair and nails become loose, and are easily removed unless the body is handled very carefully. The skin covering is easily damaged or torn loose. The body should still retain its structural integrity if carefully lifted by both arms and legs. Pockets of foul smelling gas usually form under the skin. These gas pockets may easily escape, allowing this putrid smelling gas to exit the body through any tears in the skin. As well as gases formed through putrefaction, malodorous, colored liquids may escape from the body from natural orifices, wounds, or skin ruptures caused by rough handling, injury or putrefaction. When putrefaction is advanced the skin of the hands (palmar) and feet (plantar) may become easily detached and make subsequent finger printing impossible. (This gas is what K-9’s can hit upon)
Two Weeks and Beyond	In time, all soft tissues of the body (if not dried by heat) will be reduced to a gray, greasy, unrecognizable mass. Eventually, only skeletal remains are left behind to indicate the prior presence of a human body. In time, the skeleton will also be consumed.

Примеры

Разложение головы при температуре около 20 градусов в течение 14 дней -

видео, информация

Свинья на воздухе в течение 50 дней: http://www.deathonline.net/decomposition/decomposition/index.htm

Температура земли

Архив фактической температуры - для определения возможной сохранности тела

Ссылки

Смерть и разложение в h2g2 (BBC, англ.) - подробно и много структурированной информации.
If I dug up a body, what would it look (and smell) like?, Straight Dope.

Сохранение тела

Эффект бальзамирования

Embalming affects the process, slowing it somewhat, but does not forestall it indefinitely. Embalmers typically pay the greatest attention to the parts of the body seen by mourners, such as the face and hands. The chemicals that are used in embalming will repel most insects, and slow the process of bacterial putrefaction (the embalming fluid acts to "fix" cellular proteins which means that they cannot act as a nutrient source for bacteria and it also kills the bacteria themselves), but will not preserve a corpse indefinitely. In sufficiently dry environments, an embalmed body may end up mummified and it is not uncommon for bodies in dry vaults to remain preserved to a viewable extent after decades, such as the murdered civil rights activist Medgar Evers. Another case of this would be the body of Lenin, who was kept submerged in a special tank of fluid for decades, almost perfectly preserved. Bodies submerged in peat bogs may become naturally "embalmed", arresting decomposition and resulting in a preserved specimen known as a bog body.

The time for the reduction of an embalmed body to be reduced to a skeleton varies greatly. It is important to note that when a body is decomposed before preparation embalming treatment can still be achieved (the arterial system is slow to decay) although it will not restore a natural appearance without extensive cosmetic and reconstruction work and is largely used to control the foul odours associated with decomposition.

Источник: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decomposition

Посмертная косметика

Фотографии с примерами чернокожих мертвецов, специально приведенных в порядок
Dodge - производитель танатокосметики и бальзамирующих средств

Замороженная мумия (Отци)

5300 лет в леднике.

Формалин - про сохранённое в формалине тело

Три главных фактора, влияющих на скорость разложения:

1) Температура

2) Доступ кислорода

3) Бальзамирование или иное химическое сохранение

Если внешнее состояние тела такое, как вы описали (провалившиеся глазницы и появившиеся трупные пятна), то процесс разложения только начинался. Использование формалина оказалось оптимальным в ваше м случае компромиссом. Действительно, он лишает клетки жизнеспособности из-за "сшивки" клеточных белков. Но эта сшивка останавливает химическую активность внутриклеточных ферментов, которые в противном случае давно запустили бы процесс апоптоза (программируемого самоубийства клеток) и автолиза (саморазложения клеток, что является первым этапом разложения). Кроме того, химическая фиксация делает белки непригодными для питания бактерий и убивает сами бактерии, сильно замедляя этап бактериального разложения.

Таким образом, состояние клеток стабилизируется и сохраняется их структура. При использовании стандартных химических фиксаторов (формалин, формальдегид, другие составы) органеллы (внутренние клеточные структуры, такие как митохондрии и др.) клеток стабилизируются и не разрушаются. Весьма вероятно, что и структуры, обеспечивающие долговременную память (синапсы нейронов, топология нервных сетей) хорошо сохраняются. С помощью наномедицины можно будет сравнительно легко обратить химическую фиксацию (разделить "сшитые" белки, восстановить их первоначальную конфигурацию) и вернуть клетки в жизнеспособное состояние.

На основании той информации, что у нас есть, мы считаем, мозг мог сохраниться хорошо и нужно выполнять крионирование. Если обеспечить заморозку и хранение при температуре жидкого азота, то текущий (достаточно высокий) уровень сохранности может поддерживаться неограниченно долго без особых трудностей.