Will air conditioners mummify a body?

[selunatic2397]

I have an idea for an adventure that involves a science lab on an abandoned colony.

Basically I'm throwing in a murder that took place as the base was being evacuated.

Given a solar/fusion power source to keep running the basic life support, could the basic low humidity air conditioning mummify a human body given enough time?

Still thinking out the whys (base evaced/need to keep the basic life support running).

Anyway, would a body mummify or just decay into rotten goo?

Trying to throw in some horror scenes.

 

[far-trader]

Unlikely imo. If the LS is still functional at the settings intended for living comfortably then the humidity and temp are not conducive to mummification as I understand it.

If you want a mummified body have that death happen in an isolated area with a different environmental setting. Extreme heat or cold will do, the key is extremely low humidity.

 

[BytePro]

(Just my off the head thoughts...)

Technically 'mummify', I don't think so, but dessicated over bone, sure. Most would probably refer to that as mummified...

Without any animals, insects or bacteria (of a type) to break it down, I'd think the water would eventually evaporate - leaving a shrunken carcass with hair, nails and teeth, over a skeletal structure (still connected in areas were cartilage allowed).

 

[selunatic2397]

Cool! thanks guys, I knew I could count on you.

*runs off to work on his murder mystery idea*

 

[atpollard]

Or just freeze the body in the cold of space ... once new life signs are detected, the life support turns back on and thawing of the corpsicle begins.

 

[BytePro]

Have fun!

Oh, and if I were doing a science lab - well, some little tiny rodent population might have survived for some time off nibbling at the corpses. You know - in such a way that looked like huge claw signs or teeth...

A little mystery for the party to solve. :devil:

 

[Lupus]

Mummification under basic human life support would most unlikely.

I assume when you describe mummification, your refer to more a dessication or drying out of the cadaver, rather than true Egyptian mummification.

If so, the environment would have to be extremely dry for that to be achieved. Basic life support would be designed to support life comfortably. As such temperature and humidity ranges would be kept at levels that would tolerable to the average person, which is. Of dry enough to dessication a corpse.

Granted, repeated exposure does have a drying effect on a person's skin, but that degree of drying is not sufficient to dessication a corpse.

Before dessication can occur given standard/basic life support, putrefaction would occur first. I assume this is a standard habitat and not a totally sterile environment. And so, without our natural defenses keeping the microbes at bay, environmental bacteria would start colonizing and attacking the cadaver, leading to decay.

Even in a sterile environment, the microbes within our bodies, when not regulated by our bodies natural defenses would start the decay process from within.

So, given these facts, you may be better off with the options given above
1) a faulty life support system which has created the perfect environment to dessication te corpse, making the environment hostile to newcomers
2) exposing the base to the vacuum of space. After initial decompression, the vacuum would more than likely freeze dry the corpse (kind of like freezer burning your steaks in the freezer) But I am not fully conversant with the science of vacuums

 

[Carlobrand]

That which promotes mummification is that which slows or stalls the natural decay process while allowing the body time to dry out or for decay-resisting chemicals to soak in. Cold climate, dry climate, but also such things as acidity (peat bogs) and salinity - basically a lot of the same things that might be used to preserve meat.

A corpse in a science lab means no carrion feeders, probably no insects, and the available decay bacteria consists mostly of whatever the person happens to be carrying himself. Science lab is going to make more effort to maintain a clean environment than most other settings.

Your lab is probably office temperature - not cold enough to resist decay, but not hot enough to hasten the process either. The lack of insects and other carrion feeders means the only decay process going on is bacteria, mold and the like. There are numerous news accounts of mummified remains found in homes, circumstances which would more or less parallel those you're describing - the result is pretty close to the brittle and dessicated skin-over-bones description Bytepro gave. One account describes the remains of a person of 180 pounds weighing 104 pounds when found two years after his death, suggesting there's quite a bit more there than bones.

Assuming death by violence, your players should be able to conclude a cause of death by a close examination of the remains. Assuming death by other means, a competent medical examiner with access to proper equipment might still be able to draw a conclusion, or at the very least rule out some possibilities.

 

[far-trader]

...There are numerous news accounts of mummified remains found in homes, circumstances which would more or less parallel those you're describing...

There could be cases beyond what I recall but the ones I do recall all involved very dry and very hot conditions, nothing like a climate controlled condition aimed at keeping a comfortable living habitat as the OP suggests.

 

[McPerth]

If you need it mumifyed I also thing the best option is to have it exposed to vacuum. AFAIK vacuum will more likely mumify than freeze. In controlled climatization habitat for human confort, the bacteriae on the same body putrify the whole body.

Another possibility is that the climatization was set for a very dry environ due to humidity being able to interfere wiht whatever they experimented, not to human confort. If they were trying to mimic desertic conditions needed for its experiments, the body could well be mumifyed there...

 

[DaveChase]

Or a line of the subzero liquid used to keep various things from over heating broken and killed the individual. Because the lab was sealed to eliminate contamination, the now gas expanded and over time slowly dissipated.

A lingering faint odor of the liquid remains but not enough to tell it that was what killed the individual as the isolation room lifesupport slowly over time brought the room back to a normal atmosphere.

Dave Chase

 

[mike wightman]

I'd second the vacuum exposure mummification process - only trouble is that it's pretty obvious.

Mummification requires desiccation, and a few minutes of exposure to vacuum should dry out a body nicely. Maybe throw in a bit of irradiation to kill the bacteria that may survive and cause decomposition.

 

[McPerth]

Bacteriae need humidity and more or less fixed temeperature to grow (and cause descomposition). Vacuum would take both away, and so no descomposition would occurr in vaccum.

Another thing that could affect posterior forensic analysis would be barotrauma if decompression is too quick (and quite soon after death). This may lead to some red herrings to investigators due to forensic false conclusions.

 

[aramis]

Keep in mind: not all labs will be "human comfort level."

Also, corpse dessication requires either abnormal temp or humidity, but not both. A particularly dry home at comfortable temps can result in dessicated corpses. Sure, the innards go to goo... gut flora eat the intestines... but the structure of the body and musculature can be readily preserved.

Smoking bodies at 150°F can mumify them, but again, the guts are liquified out.

Full-preservation mummification requires cold, radiation, or vacuum.

 

[atpollard]

Radiation is interesting for preservation ... I knew someone in Ohio who would shrink wrap steaks, irradiate the meat to kill bacteria, and store them for decades on a shelf at room temperature.

I don't know how much radiation is required, but a dead scientist in a clean room exposed to a radiation burst would remain 'just killed' indefinitely.

 

[Carlobrand]

There could be cases beyond what I recall but the ones I do recall all involved very dry and very hot conditions, nothing like a climate controlled condition aimed at keeping a comfortable living habitat as the OP suggests.

The cases I'm seeing are news accounts, therefore few details regarding the home environment. However, they occur in different states and under different circumstances, so I don't see how they could all fall under the very hot/very dry bit. An incident in Missouri, a couple in California, another in Florida - none of them climates known for unusual dryness. Time of death in relation to season is unknown in most cases, but a story out of West Virginia involves a person last seen alive during the Christmas season.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/03/09/mummified-remains-dead-hoarders-home-missing-mother/

http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-mumified-remains-of-playboy-playmate-found,0,7615273.story

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2010/09/update_on_mummified_remains_of.php

http://articles.cnn.com/2007-01-23/...torage-area-storage-bay-storage-unit?_s=PM:US

http://www.wvmetronews.com/index.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=33524

Some instances involve someone continuing to live in the home after someone else has died. Couple of hoarder stories like that, but again no information about climate, whether the person was still paying their utility bills and maintaining a comfortable living space or was without power and at the mercy of the elements. In some instances the bodies were wrapped in plastic or enclosed in trunks, circumstances which should result in a very humid environment around the body itself, at least until fluids or vapors find an escape. In other instances, it's just people who died alone in their homes and weren't found till long afterward - again, not clear whether the home had climate control at the time of death or for how long afterward it was maintained.

Consistent in all cases is that while circumstances didn't prevent decay of soft tissue - and an odor of decay is often remarked on - the weather, insects and other creatures that might break down the skin or damage it in the course of getting at the soft tissues are largely or wholly prevented from doing so. The soft tissues putrify, liquify, drain off, producing a distinctive stain on whatever materials the body happens to be lying on, but there is nothing to disturb the skin surface itself other than mold, loss of oils and moisture, and the stresses implicit in the putrefaction of the soft tissues. Barring some external factor like weathering or animal action, the skin is the last of the body's organs to decay. Given a bit of time it'll go too, but the fact that it lasts much longer than the soft tissues if not affected by insects and weathering may account for the frequent stories of "mummified" remains being found in enclosed environments.

One needs perhaps to be careful of definitions. These remains are "mummified" in the sense that they appear mummy-like - intact, though dried out - to the casual observer. The expert might point out that they differ radically internally from Otzi or Tut, but the average person who encounters them is no expert on mummification. Unless the character who encounters the deceased has such expertise, describing the deceased as "mummified" or "dessicated" should serve for gaming purposes.

 

[BytePro]

Interesting... so basically:

(Just my off the head thoughts...)

Technically 'mummify', I don't think so, but dessicated over bone, sure. Most would probably refer to that as mummified...

Without any animals, insects or bacteria (of a type) to break it down, I'd think the water would eventually evaporate - leaving a shrunken carcass with hair, nails and teeth, over a skeletal structure (still connected in areas were cartilage allowed).

 

[Carlobrand]

Yup - except that you're already carrying around the bacteria that are eventually going to break you down when you die. Assuming temperatures above that of a refrigerator, the victim's internal organs are going to become bacteria-food a while after his heart stops pumping. Within a couple or three days - maybe a bit more in an air-conditioned setting - he's gonna bloat up really gross-like. His insides are gonna putrify and produce a lot of cadaverine and putrescine, fluids will escape the natural orifices, and the skin may rupture under the pressure, that's all gonna gradually leak out and then dry out, and as it does so his skin will slowly collapse and shrink around his bones like the skin on some rotting peach. And then the skin will take a very long time gradually drying out and breaking down.

If you're lucky, you won't find the body until after all that liquifying and putrifying are done; he'll look "mummified" and there'll be a vaguely unpleasant odor. If you aren't, you're most likely going to do a lot of retching. I understand a bit of Vicks vaporub on the upper lip helps, although it burns a bit.

I'm given to understand that getting rid of your body's bacteria while you're living isn't really healthy - some of the buggies are there to help your digestion; I guess they're just content to digest you instead if your body stops doing what it needs to do to contain them. So, it's rather unlikely the science station would be doing anything to change the bacterial balance in the bodies of staff in order to promote lab sterility, since that's likely to trigger a lot of cramps and diarrhea - clean-suits and such-like interventions are more likely. Ergo, the left-behind victim will putrify there pretty much the same way he'd putrify anywhere else of similar temperature, assuming no other involved factors.

 

[Andrew Boulton]

CSI: Regina