71
votes
Can the dead be brought back to life by viruses?
You must tell facts from fiction; viruses need living cells to replicate because they do not have the molecular machinery at hand to generate energy and construct building blocks essential to life. So ...
- 52.3k
59
votes
Accepted
Why can't we kill ourselves by holding our breath?
Short answer
Healthy people cannot hold their breaths until unconsciousness sets in, let alone commit suicide.
Background
According to Parkes (2005), a normal person cannot even hold their breath to ...
- 52.3k
35
votes
Why can't we kill ourselves by holding our breath?
Counterexample: At least some people can train themselves to hold their breath until they pass out, and if this occurs underwater they will almost certainly die by drowning.
When I was in military ...
- 795
19
votes
What is the maximum altitude where humans can survive?
Short answer
Between 62,000 and 63,500 feet (18,900 and 19,350 meters) blood begins to boil at body temperature. This altitude, referred to as the Armstrong limit, is generally considered to be the ...
- 52.3k
12
votes
Do ants really dispose of their own dead, and how/why?
Eating the dead makes far more likely you will catch whatever killed them. They transport and dispose of the dead for the same reasons we do, to reduce disease vectors. They dispose of their garbage ...
- 14.3k
11
votes
Can the dead be brought back to life by viruses?
Note: This answer is a complement to @AliceD's answer, and is partly reusing stuff from this related answer.
Since you are specifically asking about viruses, I thought that it might be interesting to ...
- 16.7k
7
votes
Accepted
Can rigor mortis change the anatomical position in which a person died?
Rigor mortis does not cause movement. It causes rigor (Latin for stiffness.)
This is only a comparison, but think of it this way. Superglue doesn't shrink or change the shape of the connection of the ...
- 24.7k
6
votes
Does the second law of thermodynamics cause aging?
Second law of thermodynamic and ageing
The second law of thermodynamic applies to closed system. Organisms are not closed system. The second law of thermodynamic is a fundamental principle of our ...
- 68k
6
votes
Accepted
Would urination continue after death?
Yes. Moreover, even if they were not urinating at the time of death, they likely would at death, assuming adequate filling of the urinary bladder. There are two sphincters that close off the urethra. ...
- 12.2k
6
votes
Why does fever above 102 herald a cancer patient's death?
I'm not sure I agree with that, but if I had to support that assertion, I would say that while patients with COPD, CHF and neurodegenerative diseases may die of hypoxia (no fever there), patients with ...
- 24.7k
6
votes
Why exactly does the immune system weaken with age?
We don't know.
More precisely, we know of many, many different reasons why the immune system deteriorates with age, but we don't really know which are different measures of the same thing, which ...
- 14.2k
5
votes
Metabolic activity postmortem
Your question is a little vague and as Christiaan mentioned, linking to the papers would be useful. If I understand, though, you want to know why cellular metabolic activity that takes places after ...
- 1,879
5
votes
Accepted
At what point is a picked flower considered dead?
This is very much analogous to your "limb" suggestion, or, since the flower is a reproductive organ, one can ask,
At exactly what point is the uterus considered dead after a hysterectomy?
or,
...
- 24.7k
5
votes
Why are victims of Covid19 being wrapped in plastic?
The WHO guidelines for VHF victims (Ebola etc.) do say that they should be buried in body bags, and if those are not available, in plastic sheeting.
If body bags are not available, wrap the body in ...
- 3,052
4
votes
Accepted
Will neurons die if they are inactive for a long time?
Short answer
Yes.
Background
Postsynaptic neuronal degeneration after deafferentation are notorious in the peripheral sensory systems. There, marked degenerative processes are present when input to ...
- 52.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Could a single cell be brought to life?
There are species where cells and even whole organisms can go into a state called cryptobiosis where their metabolism is suspended but can be revived later. This usually happens when the conditions ...
- 1,229
4
votes
Accepted
Why do living things go belly up as they die?
limbs are light weight compared to bodies, if you knock an animal around (and it has no active correction AKA is not alive) it will tend to end up on its back just due to where its center of gravity ...
- 14.3k
4
votes
Accepted
Immediate cause of death due to dehydration
The simple answer is dehydration kills you by causing the blood flow to become completely ineffective.
Dehydration limits the amount of water in the bloodstream causing an increase in blood viscosity,...
- 535
4
votes
When is it viable to remove old graves?
8-10 years
Keep in mind digging up bodies once they are nothing but bones was common practice at one time, look up the catacombs of Paris or just Ossuary.
Human remains are not actually considered ...
- 14.3k
3
votes
Accepted
What would kill you first water or cola?
The LD 50 listed on the wikipedia page you link to is 90 mL/kg, which would be about 6 liters for a 68 kg (150 lb) person. This is consistent with at least one report, where someone died from drinking ...
- 254
3
votes
Which are the last cells of the human body to die?
They found live skeletal muscle stem cells in human corpses 17 days after death (LiveScience, 2012).
They isolated live stem cells from the bone marrow from human fingers 5 days after death and ...
- 8,049
3
votes
Accepted
Can tardigrades survive being eaten?
In there natural state no, tartigrade have absolutely no way to survive the acidic content of stomachs and are fragile.
In their cryptobiosed form (extremely resilient form) there has been no ...
- 858
3
votes
Is it possible for a human to live forever if he/she didn't catch any diseases?
No that is not possible ever. There is something called telomere which is present in the chromosomes of cell .These Telomere triggers the action of ageging and leads body towards death. When we are in ...
- 41
3
votes
Accepted
When is a person declared to be dead?
Although there exist some differing opinions mostly to do with brain function, the best answer is definitely the heartbeat. Here's why:
In some ways the human body really does operate like a machine. ...
- 46
3
votes
When is a person declared to be dead?
In the United States there is the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) which defines death as either:
1.Irreversible cessation of circulatory and respiratory functions; or
2.Irreversible ...
- 2,733
3
votes
How to surpass cell death?
Yes; It is possible to inhibit cell death.
There are several possibilities, of which many - as correctly recognized by you - involve changes in the activity of the cell death pathway (or related ones)...
- 1,597
3
votes
Cause of premature death in turtle eggs
Well, a real chance this is a genetic problem.
How to test.
For the next hatching, have some “normal” unrelated eggs nearby under the exact same conditions. If they also have higher mortality then ...
- 2,883
2
votes
For how long can a person drink sea water?
After drinking 1 liter of seawater with 3.5% salt your kidneys need to excrete at least 1.5 liters of urine in order to maintain normal blood sodium levels, which leaves you with 0.5 liter of negative ...
- 8,049
2
votes
Do animals suffer from "Human" mental disorders?
I know of at least one case, some social primates develop maladaptive behaviors similar to sociopathy if raised in isolation without the social contact with others of their species as they grow up. It ...
- 14.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible