Listen up viewers,
we’ve got important news for you:
One of these days,
you’re going to die.
Well, hopefully it’s not going to happen today,
so now that we’ve caught you
while living, we want to hit you
with some science so you’re aware
of what goes on, after you’re gone.
Let’s say hypothetically that you
were to just slump over dead
in your chair right now.
So, what happens next?
Well, because your heart is
no longer pumping, your blood stops
flowing and coagulates - forming clots
and becoming really thick and lumpy.
As as your blood is no longer
circulating, it settles where gravity
forces it to – a process called
post-mortem hypostasis or livor mortis.
Without circulation, your body
temperature also drops and your muscles
stiffen in the process known as rigor mortis
(onscreen text: Latin for “stiffness of death”)
Now, obviously you aren’t breathing any more.
No respiration means no oxygen
is getting to your cells.
Without oxygen in your cells,
the mitochrondria inside can’t
make ATP, a chemical used for
a host of cellular tasks.
If your cells can’t make ATP,
your cells stop working.
In otherwords, you’re dead.
With your cells now kaput,
they start to break down and release
all sorts of stuff including enzymes.
That makes for an environment that is
very attractive to bacteria and fungi,
which eventually enter the mix and
start decomposing, or putrefying the body.
This process certainly isn’t pretty,
but it’s definitely normal.
Now before you’re buried or cremated,
your family may want a funeral.
To slow the decomposition process and
keep you looking tidy, chemistry comes
in handy via a process called embalming.
The embalming process happens in two steps.
First, your body is going to be loaded
full of preservative chemicals like
formaldehyde or glutaraldehyde using
a pump and your circulatory system.
Next, all your stomach contents get sucked
out and all the dark nether regions
untouched by the circulatory system
are filled up with the same chemicals.
While the embalming process does
offer more time for your family to
bid farewell to a you that mostly
looks like you, it is only temporary,
then it’s back to decomposition.
During the decomposition process,
a huge array of chemical byproducts
are spewed out by bacteria.
Two in particular, putrecine and
cadaverine smell absolutely disgusting,
I mean really, they smell like a dead body.
Sulfur containing compounds are also
produced, which smells like rotten
egg and skunk, along with countless
other gases that work together, to
temporarily make you more bloated
than you ever were while living.
Ok, so we’ve heard that some say
that your hair and nails keep
growing after you die.
But, let’s see what mortician/youtuber
Caitlin Doughty from The Order of
the Good Death has to say about that.
“The hair on your head grows a tiny
amount everyday, But when you die
those processes stop.
For thousands of years,
people thought that the dead’s
hair and fingernails kept growing
after death, because that’s what
it looked like to the naked eye.
But it’s not that the hair and nails
are growing, it’s that the rest of
your body is shrinking.
When you die, your body dehydrates
and the formally moisturized
plump skin shrivels.
Revealing not growth but what
was already there to begin with.”
Okay, so now you’ve got a
good sense of what happens
when you can sense no more.
And while it may seem like
a dark topic, just remember,
live life to the fullest!
Learn more chemistry while you
still can, do yourself a favor
and hit that subscribe button!
And be sure to check out Caitlin’s
channel too for more facts about
the end of your life. She’s also
got an awesome new book out,
the link is in the description below.
Click that button to the right
to subscribe to her channel.
Big shoutout to ACS Webinars
for hooking us up with the
chemistry of Death webinar,
these folks have got tons
of cool chem videos,
subscribe to their channel,
learn something new, and
we’ll see you again soon, chemheads.