would a human decompose in an airless environment? if not why are people trying to preserve humans after death with poisonous chemicals and freezing? the freezing alone would destroy all blood vessels. if a body does not decompose in an airless environment why arent they trying this. obviously this would not work in space because of the sub zero conditions any theories?
Because as pressure decreases so does boiling point. Successfully storing a body in a vacuum environment would require first completely dessicating it.
I'd think that everything decomposes after awhile. Your body has bacteria within it that will dissolve itself eventually.
There are anaerobe bacteria that don't need oxygen to function. Locked inside the body they are protected from the vacuum. You'd have to sterilize the body first.. removing any chance of reviving it in the future.
I'm sure there are various reactions that would eventually occur among you body's own chemicals that would cause damage, even if you could eliminate all bacteria. If you cut off blood flow to a limb it will quickly die and become useless, without the help of decomposition from bacteria etc.
That's what they did with Stalin. It's expensive and requires monitoring to make sure no air gets into the chamber.
Preservation through dessication would likely destroy any chance of reviving someone later. Most proteins' structure depends on an aqueous environment. Without the water there, they misfold and stick irreversibly to other proteins. You know how jerky has a different consistency than steak, even if you rehydrate it? That's because of proteins sticking to other proteins in the absence of water, and not unsticking. Interestingly, there is a phylum of animal called the Tardigrade or water bears, that can dessicate totally, and be revived decades later. It is the only animal known that can completely turn off ALL metabolism. It packages its cells with a sugar that prevents their tissues from sticking together, so that it doesn't get any beef jerky effects.
And they can survive brief periods of exposure to temperatures close to absolute zero Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Hehe. Once you get down to "frozen solid," I don't think it really matters if you keep getting colder. -200 isn't really any worse than -100.
Actually they can only survive close to absolute zero for a few minutes wheras they can survive -200 for days Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Not saying I don't believe you, but do you have a sourcre for that? Once you hit -200 everything is frozen and all chemical reactions are basically stopped, so it doesn't seem like getting any colder would matter. I'm having a hard time imagining what might be worse about -270 than -200.
I could never understand why people would want to preserve a multicelled organism that is clearly designed through evolution to "decay". I guess you can say we "Live" to die and every instance of every day is just that little bit closer to that eventual extinguishing. It's not like we are sticking pins in the deceased and putting them up on the wall behind glass like a butterfly collection. (Although saying that there is that Günther with his macabre plasticised artwork [ref]) I guess you could say I'm less bothered about the dead and realise we should be more concerned with the living and those attempting to live. Death clearly, as always is somebody else's problem.
Well, when you think about it, I don't think tardigrades are composed of liquid helium or the likes so you are probably right that there is not much difference between the 2 temperatures in terms of living organisms. I think it is more likely that tardigrades have only been subjected to this temperature for a few minutes and not that they couldn't survive for longer if they were exposed for a longer time. Must be expensive to keep anything at absolute zero for longer than a few minutes Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Anywhere here is the link I got that from: http://www.earthlife.net/inverts/tardigrada.html
To stop decomposition, i recommend petrifying one's self. Replace as much living tissue with mineral content as possible and THEN place your new rock-body in a vacuum. Have fun!... oh, and kill all bacteria before the vacuum, because they weather rock and mineral structures.
