Stiff By Mary Roach

Stiff

The Curious Lives Of Cadavers

Mary Roach

There have been points in the reading of this book that I thought about putting it down and never picking it up again. Not because it is a bad book but the subject manner at times is just too much. Stiff is a very well written book, one that handles its subject manner with compassion. I chose to read this book because my husband and I were talking about what was to be done when we no longer needed these bodies and what our final arrangement should be. Surgery has a way of making you think that way when one of you already has some very serious health issues.

Donated cadavers allow surgeons to “practice” before they use a procedure on a live patient. Not many medical students are given the chance to work on donated cadavers. Instead they are taught technique by watching and then at some point given the chance to operate under the supervision of an experienced surgeon. Donating your body for research is a fairly new concept. In the 1700 and 1800’s the threat of dissection was used in some areas as a deterrent, if you stole a pig you were hung but if you killed a man you were hung and then dissected. In Paris the unclaimed poor could be used for dissection. And in some cases it was known that family members were taken for dissection before being brought to the churchyard for burial. This lack of donations leads to early surgeons turning to grave robbers for the cadavers that they needed for research. There was money to be made by robbing graves.

There are many areas of research in which cadavers are and can be used to make life better for those left behind. One of those is in the study of human decay which helps the police to better understand crime scenes. Cadavers are also used in tests to see what the human tolerance limits are in vehicle collisions. This is the best way to see how the body reacts to injury. This type of study also takes place in the study of victims in airplane crashes. The types of injury tell what happened at the moment of the crash. Often in ways that the black box in the airplane may not be able to show. The use of cadavers takes place to help researchers understand how bullets and bombs work. How to protect someone from more serious injury because of the battles fought in war. There is also the donation of organs that are used to help the living. This may be the ultimate choice because it is done while the organs still work but the brain no longer functions.

The use of cadavers also is used in the research for alternatives to burial and cremations which are being studied around the world. One of these is known as a mortuary tissue digester which in a few hours would dissolve the tissues of a corpse and reduce it to 2 or 3% of its body weight. This only leaves behind a pile of decollagenated bones that can be crumbled. Everything else has been turned into a sterile brown liquid but some may have trouble with the issue that the main ingredient in the procedure is lye. There is also the process of Freeze-drying by using liquid nitrogen but the body would need to broken down into small pieces and would take about a year. There is also the idea of composting human beings as an option for third world countries such as Haiti, parts of rural China. Where burial is often expensive and bodies are often cremated in mass. Most of these ideas have been passed over for differing reasons. Most often the cause is that people cannot deal with the loss of someone in these unusual ways.

How has this book affected me? Tried talking with hubby about some of this but the discussion was too much for him. At times this book was an informative read but very difficult, only for the strong at heart or the oddly curious. I think that I am now going to go read a nice novel, something light and easy on the brain.

Time Travel In Einstein's Universe By J. Richard Gott

Time Travel In Einstein’s Universe
The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time

J. Richard Gott

One day going through the book store I came across this interesting book. The title caught my eye because I have always wondered about time travel. I must admit it was more from the philosophical then the scientific. This book delves into the ideas of physics by use of pop culture with discussions of Star Trek, and the movies Back To The Future and of course H.G. Wells The Time Machine. At times this book was a delight to read as well as difficult for the non scientific person such as myself. The talk of cosmic strings, curved space time and worm holes along with Einstein, special relativity and curved space has lost me on more then one occasion

There are discussions of the possibilities of time travel to the future. An example that he uses is one of Einstein theories, in which you would get on a space ship. Go to a star about 500 light years away and then return traveling both ways at 99.95% of the speed of light. Upon return earth will be 1,000 years older but you will only be 10 years old. Such speed has been shown to be possible with the use of particle accelerators. We can be fairly certain that time travel from the near future still is just a theory because of the fact as Steven Hawking has noted we are not being run over by tourist from the future. They would only be able to travel back to the point where the machine had been invented

Several theories are presented as to the probability of time travel to the past through the use of Cosmic String Loops and Black Holes. There is also the chance that you might be able to take advantage of a Wormhole. Warpdrive, which is the altering of space to travel among stars at speeds faster then the speed of light as seen on Star Trek. This theory has been shown to work by Miguel Alcubierre by the use of general relativity.

At this point all that has been presented in the book is for the most part is nothing more then theory. As they work to push physics to the extreme never taking for granted that the imposable may not be possible.

The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

The Irresistible Revolution
Living as an ordinary radical

Shane Claiborne
http://www.thesimpleway.org/

The author confronts our ideas of what it is to be Christian from a very radical point of view. He lives among the poor in Philadelphia, PA in an organization called The Simple Way. Though his experiences here in this community and those that took place during his education studying theology. For a summer he worked with Mother Theresa in India with the lepers’ and the poor. He also studied at Willow Creek church for a short time which exposed him to the modern church. These life experiences lead him to the understanding of what he feels Jesus would do in our world. He explains this best with the statement asking us “when we stopped living Christianity and started to study it.”

Shane Claiborne often draws comparisons between those who give money but never really give time and connect what the problems of the poor. There are references to the idea that grace is cheap because we don’t want to pay the price. We admire Jesus and his followers for what he did but we are not willing to make the same sacrifice. The distant act of charity because those who have given helps those who need to receive but there is no interaction between the two. There is that distance between the rich and the poor. Early Christians believed that charity was merely the returning what we have stolen. And if there was not enough food for everyone they would fast until there was enough. If one child starves while one Christian has enough food then they are guilty of murder. We need to love others as ourselves. He express’s the belief that we need a theology rooted in abundance rather then the one of prosperity or poverty that we have today. One where we have just what we need and nothing more, having too much may cause us to disown God.

Some of the ideas that are presented in the book argue against the church of today. Shane Claiborne also pushes the idea of the politics in faith. And they are not always the ideal that so many of us may view as Christian. In fact his thought is that we as Christian should challenge the human authority that rules our world today with its wars and social upheavals. You may not agree with everything that he has to say but you must see the love of Jesus in his actions. There is also that fact that he feels that the mega churches are not what God wants Instead we should be looking to smaller and smaller churches. Jesus came as a small child, faith of a mustard seed,as God takes over the earth one small act of love at a time. Most important of all we must pray about everything!

Whether you chose to agree with everything or anything that Shane Claiborne says in his book, what he says makes you think about how we are as Christians in the world today.
Is his view of what Jesus would want true, I don’t know. I do feel that we need to question ourselves in the manner of what would Jesus do?

Sex God By Rob Bell

Sex God
Exploring The Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality
Rob Bell

I must admit that I was a little concerned about reading this book. Having survived the preacher’s sermon about SEX the most notable was titled the elephant in the bedroom. It was the Sunday that I would have skipped if I’d only known. The sermon was very good and very well handled without being too heavy handed but still. It was those same feelings that keep from picking up this book at first but what a mistake that would have been. I enjoyed this book so much that I have it in two formats, audio and e-book. After listening to in my car I had to have a copy of it that I could reference to in the written format. For those that enjoy audio this is a great way to enjoy the book because it is read by the author and pastor Rob Bell. So at times you feel as though you are listening to sermon on Sunday morning. Not the kind that would make you uncomfortable or awkward.

When we talk about sex we must in turn talk about where we come from and who created us which of course leads us to God. Also we need to reflect on how we treat others because this reflects our view of the creator. As we dehumanize others we are doing the same to ourselves. There is also the need to be aware that God often gives us not what we want but what we need. It may be something as simple lipstick, but it will be something that we need. Even more reason that we must learn to become what God has intended us to be and he will help us to do that.

This is a book that challenges the perspective of the world. While it enlightens us to how God views us and our sexuality.