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To begin with, when your heart stops beating, your body's cells and tissues stop receiving oxygen. Brain cells are the first to die -- usually within three to seven minutes [source: Macnair]. (Bone and skin cells, though, will survive for several days.) Blood begins draining from the capillaries, pooling in lower-lying portions of the body, creating a pale appearance in some places and a darker appearance in others.

Read more ?http://science.howstuffworks.com/body-farm1.htm

12 years ago. Rating: 6
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Once all body functions stop, the process of decomposition begins.  Our bodies are havens for bacteria - in the air we used to breath (lungs), food we used to eat (digestive systems), our skin that was exposed to all manner of microbes.  If left to open air airborn microbes go in for the feast and other life forms that live off decaying material have a holiday.   We are 98% water and 2% chemicals.  All kinds of external material attack from the outside, while we are attacked by internal organisms.  Gases build and, (not a pretty visual, but true) we bloat like a balloon and, well, you know what happens to balloons when overfilled.  Look up info on the Univ of Tennessee Body Farm.  They are world known for the research they do on decomposition.

 

12 years ago. Rating: 3
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And it depends upon the health of the person, what infections did they have at time of death, how much did they weigh, if they were intact, or ripped open, etc.  Also, upon if they were in a hot or cold environment, in the water, on land, in a dry or moist atmosphere, etc.  Amazingly, the scavenger organisms of nature do an incredible job of reducing it to the inorganic remains. 

12 years ago. Rating: 1
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