Sunday, December 4
Liam and Naomi will love this one
Howdy folks,
I'm on a recce trip in the US. This place is frankly weird. They don't realise you need boiling water to make tea, and they think you can stir it with a straw! And they've never heard of muesli. Breakfast time is most distressing.
Anyway, I've just arrived in San Francisco, where on Tuesday I'm getting to meet Alexander Shulgin. Hurrah for work! But perhaps more exciting for you lot, on Thursday I was in Tennessee to see the body farm. There are now over a hundred bodies there, just lying about in the woods, in various stages of decomposition. It was pretty strange. If you ever get to visit it, I advise you not to wear your best shoes...
Hope you're all well.
Soph
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9 comments:
I followed your link, read and immediate reaction waqs 'cool, who can I tell about this'. Unfortunately, there's only you guys, and ytou already know. Thanks for a fascinating link, Soph - especially interesting about the 'two-track' decay, insect vs. non-insect.
I wonder how much difference soil-type would make, though. I'd imagine that they only get one type at the farm, and that variations in pH (think bodies-in-the-peat) will affect decay rates. Also things like permeability and moisture content would have a presumeably significant effect. I guess it'll be easier to import soil conditions rather than franchise the farm concept.
Just listening to Steve Jones on Radio 4 who just said that science is a broad church full of narrow minds. Nice quote :-)
Extremely cool. What's this a recce for, Soph? Sounds like an interesting series if it involves those two.
Good point about soil type, Liam - maybe they just add lime or peat to get the right pH? I am now imagining a Halloween version of Gardener's Question Time. That's obviously the programme for Naomi to present.
Liam - so true, I have observed this before about our blog, you think, 'that's cool, must tell people' then realise that only you lot would be interested and you already know now...
Mind you, some of the people you meet through work might be interested. The guy who showed me round the body farm was explaining why he loves being an anthropologist, 'And what kid doesn't dream of spending all summer in the Smithsonian?' Err, most of them probably, love, although I get where you're coming from and I know a few other people who would too...
Soil type and other env factors - yes, they are aware of that. Really the results are most applicable to the surrounding area, but it's the best they can manage. I think even importing a bit of soil wouldn't really do it cos the sub soil and ecosystem is still the same.
However, the concept is, essentially, being franchised. They were the first, but there is now a couple of others at other Unis and more planned, although it's more difficult to get planning permission, etc, these days...
Alec - it's a one off 1 hr doc for Sky One (yes, I know), with a view, hopefully, to a series if it goes well. The subject is scientists who've experimented on themselves - the body farm doesn't really fit at all, we're shoe-horning it in because it was mentioned by accident in the pitching meeting and the commissioning editor loved it. Our (paper thin, if you ask me) rationale is that many of the scientists who work there are donating their bodies...
PS Have been reading PIHKAL, a kind of autobiographical book by Shulgin and his wife, which contains accounts of their experiments and also their courtship. I wish I'd realised before I started that it also contains some intimate information about their sex life. I'm not sure I can interview them now...
This is where you really need Ros on the production team.
He experimented on himself with a rug that your work firewall won't pass but which rhymes with "bescaline"; he also invented a new method of synthesising another rug with a name that sounds like "bextasy" which your firewall also probably won't pass, and promoted its use by therapists in the 1970s. He takes a lot of sykoactive rugs and describes their effects.
Perhaps [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/Story/0,,1508604,00.html"]this[/URL] will get past your firewall. He's basically a chemist and psychopharmacologist. He looks at known psychedelic compounds and synthesizes variations on them and then tests out if they are active. If he thinks they are interesting then his wife and some friends all test them out and try to characterise them.
Met him today, him and his wife were totally lovely and insisted I stay for lunch and then gave me a lift back to my hotel.
I'd probably have thought twice before accepting an invitation to lunch from a man who is famous for inventing psychoactive drugs and trying them out on his friends...
Wow. Shulgin is the total GOD of psychoactives. V impressed Soph. Also body farm info fascinating. I confess to reading a lot of Patricia Cornwell books (actually a terrible writer but addictive). Blow flies apparently also useful for time of death etc.
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