[Exodus (OP)]

Ok, this is rather morbid but i was thinking...

you see on telly when people have been murdered their assailant buries them in woodland etc... i know this is a great place for bacteria etc, but surely there are much better places to leave a body so it decomposes quicker and thus gives you more chance of getting away with it.

I was thinking that old copper mines would be a prime location as there is associations with chalcopyrite which is an iron sulphide. The sulphides form acids in the lakes that form a the base of the old pits. One such pit in Cyprus i have visited had a pH of less than 1! surely if you dumped the body with a weight in there it would be broken down in no time? even animal bones around the edge of the lake had become powdery soft!

[xx(]

Thats Economics...

[pat]

Great suggestion, but doesn't your choice of murder locations become kind of restricted to where there is a copper mine within a few miles !

Anyway, excuse me a minute, I think my mother in law might be calling me....!!!

Pat

Pat

[chris]

Richard - there is a special Yes Concert being laid on at Hyde Park in July this year. Advance preference tickets go on sale Monday (31/3/3). Do you want to go ? My treat.

Chris

[Donnah]

Hey, thanks for the idea. I do some freelance writing, maybe it's time to work on a murder mystery.
Donnah

[chris]

Donnah - do we get a cut of the profits for providing the inspiration ? Or how about publishing it online on naked scientists !

You could call it "The appliance of science"

Chris

[Exodus (OP)]

Being a geologist i know of numeros mines in the UK with such favourable conditions... [xx(]

I was thinking though, would teeth be better able to cope with the acid, are they not made from calcium flourite which is one of the most resistant materials? They could trace the person on their dental records....

Here's the scene though for a book, you could make it a holiday murder... throw in some and horrid sexual twists... perhaps the murderer gets off on torturing the person. How about he/she cuts crucial arteries then while their still alive lowers them into the mine water just to hear their screams! hahahaha i sound pretty evil!

Also, i'm sure if you attached a big enough piece of concret to someones feet and dumped them at sea they'd disappear... I guess you need to put a fairly heavy bit of rock on cos don't bodies swell with gas?  



Thats Economics...

[chris]

The point about teeth is probably not a concern because any dentist will atest to the impact of a well known brand of cola on teeth.

Also, regarding your point about sending someone to the seaside in 'concrete wellingtons', according to forensic archaeologist Corinne Duhig, whom we interviewed on Naked Scientists last April - http://www.thenakedscientists.com/html/shows/2002.04.07.htm - the body falls apart under water and then bits start washing up in a rather gruesome fashion on nearby beaches or make interesting 'catches' for fishermen. Apparently the key with this otherwise excellent form of murder (because sea creatures eat the evidence) is to enclose the body in a non-degradable net with a sufficiently fine net to prevent any identifiable parts slipping out. Then leave it to the crabs, prawns, fish...

Lastly, your point about teeth not being eroded by acid in your 'mine murder' reminds me of a case where a multiple murderer was 'dissolving' his victims in an industrial acid bath. The 'residue' he then threw onto his garden at home. He was trapped, however, when police found a gallstone amongst the roses. Being almost pure cholesterol the gall stone had escape the effect of the acid and survived intact.

Things that make you go mmmm...!

[Exodus (OP)]

any idea about the date of the concert?

Thats Economics...

[NakedScientist]

17th July (Thursday) in Hyde Park. We tried to contact you but no one answered the phone (we rang for ages). We've now bought tickets (and got front-row seats - seriously !) but they are still on restricted issue until the first week in April - see http://www.yesworld.com for details - click on tour / hyde park.

TNS

[Donnah]

Well what if the murderer was a denturist who selected victims that had complete dentures?  It would make your "Appliance of Science" title even more fitting (pardon the pun).  As for your cut, it would be roughly the same as what I get for posting my ideas here.  I would mention you two in the intro though.  Publishing it online on Naked Scientists?  mmmm...!

[NakedScientist]

Seriously - publishing online is definitely the way to go because it is instantly more accessible to everyone, everywhere, and the start-up and distribution costs are tiny compared with printing to paper. The audience grows as the product attracts attention, and is easy to monitor so that you can track how your product influences the market, it serves as powerful online self-promotion, helping you to be taken seriously by publishers who would otherwise not give you the time of day - you can hit them with objective data demonstrating that your product has a niche and is popular. This reduces the gamble they take in investing in you and hence they are more likely to take you on.

You have a science background Donnah - why not write for naked scientists ?

TNS

[Donnah]

Your vrey connvincing, u sur u wnt mi to right an artcl?

Got any suggestions for a topic?

[NakedScientist]

Why that's supposed to be your choice !
TNS

[Exodus (OP)]

speaking of disposing of a corpse, did anyone hear about that guy in the US who put the corpse of his wife through an industrial shredder over a bridge? It was almost the perfect crime but a witness came forward to say they had seen a man acting suspicious with a shredder. Closer examination of the area turned up a few articles of jewellery which were later identified as hers. He then owned up to his crime. [xx(]

Essentia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem...

[Donnah]

I remember hearing about that.  Didn't they find bits of human bone along the shore?  Can you imagine actually putting someone through a shredder?  UGHH!!!

Exodus, what does the Latin mean?

[Quantumcat]

? not ? multiplied beyond need.

[Exodus (OP)]

The latin is actually one of the major principles of western science although in my opinion it relates to eveything i do so its my favourite quote.

Its Occam's Rule. "hypotheses should not be multiplied unnecessarily"

Essentia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem...

[sharkeyandgeorge]

i understand the best way to get rid of a body is to first stab the stomach releasing much of the gasses then wrap it in chicken wire along with some large stones and drop it in the sea the chicken wire alows the little beasties to start recycling the body but stops parts floating off and surfacing also by dropping in the sea rather than inland the tides will make the search for the body more difficult if anyone sees you

Interesting, no the other thing... tedious.
The philosopher Bender

[Ylide]

When I took analytic chemistry, my instructor had a bottle of what he called "Jack's Magic Solution" which we used for cleaning the deposited crap out of glass vacuum filters.  I believe it was a mixture of sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and potassium permanganate.  (I don't know in what molar ratios, sorry murderers)  He implied that if one were to dump a body into a plastic barrel and fill it with the stuff, the entire corpse would be able to wash down the gutter in liquid form.  



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[Corbeille]

Round here we stand them up in bus stops.





 Nah pop no style, a strictly roots!