Research annoyances

[aphowell]

There is apparently a series named Body Farm, which complicated my attempt at some quick-and-dirty research. (I remembered an interview with someone from probably fifteen years ago, probably on a true crime show, a woman faculty member in the woods talking about an individual decomposing in a barrel. My google-fu and patience are not up to the task of finding it.) What I initially wanted were general descriptions of the lay of the land at such a facility, but so much of the coverage is sensational or dutifully-attempting-to-not-be-sensational and those details are almost completely incidental. I don't need to see decaying cadavers. I don't particularly want to see decaying cadavers. (It's not a question of squeamishness--though decaying cadavers are certainly gross--but respect. Those people donated their bodies for scientific research, and I am not conducting scientific research.) But I can get many of the details I'm interested in from published papers, descriptions of experimental methodology and whatnot, without any ethical qualms.