11. How fast does a human body begin to decompose, and what are the products?
- How do you know that the flax fibers were not involved in image formation?
- Are there any other ways than radiocarbon to date the Shroud of Turin?
- What could be observed about image properties by looking at the damage from the fire of 1532?
- What options for future scientific study of the Shroud's history and image were lost as a result of the "restoration" of 2002?
- What are the optical and physical properties of flax fibers (linen)?
- What Shroud image properties have been observed objectively by scientific methods?
- Can the presence of a "bioplastic polymer" coating anywhere on the Turin Shroud be confirmed? Could it affect the radiocarbon age determination?
- Could a "bioplastic polymer" affect the radiocarbon age of the Shroud of Turin?
- How do you know that the image on the Shroud of Turin was not painted?
- How do you know that there is real blood on the Shroud?
- How do you know that the image was not produced by radiation?
- How do you know that the image was not a scorch? How do you know that most of the Shroud had not been heated enough to start decomposition?
- How do you know that the radiocarbon sample was not valid for dating the Shroud of Turin?
- How do you know that the fire of AD 1532 did not start a long-term autocatalytic decomposition of the Turin Shroud?
- Why are there bands of different colored linen throughout the Shroud, and what do they prove about image formation mechanisms?
- How fast does cellulose (linen) decompose (produce a color) compared with the impurities found on the Shroud of Turin?
- How is it possible to get image only on the topmost surface of the cloth of the Turin Shroud?
- Can some simple, natural process explain a doubly-superficial image?
Answer to # 11:
The University of Tennessee maintains an experimental area where observations are made on decomposing corpses. They find that flies lay their eggs in wounds on dead bodies, and maggots appear before 30 hours at about 23ºC. This approximates the time required for liquid decomposition products to begin to appear on the surface of a body. We could not find any evidence for the migration of liquid decomposition products through the cloth; therefore, the cloth could not have been in contact with the body for very long.
Decomposing bodies start producing ammonia (NH3) in the lungs quite soon after death, and the ammonia diffuses outward through the nose and mouth. Ammonia is lighter than air, and it diffuses rapidly. The rate of production of ammonia decreases with time after death.
Within a few hours, depending on weather conditions, a body starts to produce heavier amines in its tissues, e.g., putrescine (1,4-diaminobutane), and cadaverine (1,5-diaminopentane). These amines are much heavier than air, and they diffuse relatively slowly. Experiments prove that slow diffusion relates to increased resolution in image formation. The early appearance and rapid diffusion of low-molecular-weight ammonia from the nose and mouth might help explain the greater amount of image color between the nose and mouth, in the beard, and into the nearby hair. It will also diffuse through the cloth more quickly and reach the back side of the cloth in greater concentration. Ammonia will diffuse about 20 cm through air while cadaverine is diffusing only 6 cm.
© 2004 Daniel R. Porter, Bronxville, New York
