Forensic Microbiology Part 1: Microbes of Death

07/23/15 • 19 min

This month’s episode of Microbe Talk is something a bit different – the first in a two-part special on forensic microbiology.

In part one, we’re exploring the microbes of death and decay – and how they can be used by forensic scientists to work out when and how someone has died.

We spoke to writer Mo Costandi about his recent experiences visiting body farms in Texas, where scientists study the process of decomposition. Mo wrote an article for the Wellcome Trust’s Mosaic on the subject (which is well worth reading), so we asked him to the Society’s offices to find out more about what happens to our bodies after we die.

We also hear from forensic scientist Dr Gulnaz Javan, who is conducting research into the “thanatomicrobiome”, or microbes of death, at one of these facilities. Gulnaz and her team take samples from cadavers and the surrounding soil in order to study the microbial communities present at different stages of decomposition. She talked to us about a recent paper from her group that discusses their early findings.

This episode contains descriptions of decomposing human corpses.

Image credit: Mo Costandi

Music: Chris Zabriskie under CC BY 4.0

Sound effects: “BunchOfFlies” by HerbertBoland under CC BY 3.0, “Countryside in Texas, insects and birds” by felix.blume under CC0 1.0

Previous Episode

Culture Collections: Microbes from WW1 and Fleming's nose

Private Ernest Cable was a WW1 soldier who died on 13 March 1915 and his body now lies in a communal cemetery in Wimereux, France.

Records suggest that Cable was the first British soldier in WW1 to die from dysentery - an intestinal diarrhoeal infection, caused by Shigella flexneri bacteria. Today, a sample of the very Shigella which infected and killed Cable can be found at the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC), where it is helping researchers to understand the evolution of drug resistance.

The NCTC is part of Public Health England's Culture Collections, which includes thousands of strains of bacteria, viruses and fungi. We spoke to Julie Russell, Head of Culture Collections, about some of the more unusual historical strains housed there, and the role that they continue to play in the fight against disease.

Image: Wimereux Communal Cemetery

Image credit: Wernervc on Wikimedia Commons under CC-BY-SA-3.0

Next Episode

Microbe Talk Extra: Flu Fighters

For this Microbe Talk Extra, we went to the Royal Society's Summer Science Exhibition to meet the Flu Fighters – scientists working on new ways to fight and diagnose influenza.

Dr Holly Shelton works at The Pirbright Institute on the genetics of the flu virus. She talked to us about how different strains of flu infect different species, from bats to birds to humans.

We also hear about new devices which allow farmers to test their poultry for bird flu – and get instant results.

No animals were harmed in the making of this episode, but a robot chicken was rather disgruntled.