Stiff : the curious lives of human cadavers / Mary Roach.

"With a new epilogue" -- Cover.

Originally published �2003.

Includes a reading group guide.

Includes bibliographical references.

Introduction -- A head is a terrible thing to waste : practicing surgery on the dead -- Crimes of anatomy : body snatching and other sordid tales from the dawn of human dissection -- Life after death : on human decay and what can be done about it -- Dead man driving : human crash test dummies and the ghastly, necessary science of impact tolerance -- Beyond the black box : when the bodies of passengers must tell the story of a crash -- The cadaver who joined the army : the sticky ethics of bullets and bombs -- Holy cadaver : the crucifixion experiments -- How to know if you're dead : beating-heart cadavers, live burial, and the scientific search for the soul -- Just a head : decapitation, reanimation, and the human head transplant -- Eat me : medicinal cannibalism and the case of the human dumplings -- Out of the fire, into the compost bin : and other new ways to end up -- Remains of the author : will she or won't she? -- Epilogue -- Bibliography.

"For two thousand years, cadavers-- some willingly, some unwittingly-- have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to bunion surgery, cadavers have helped make history in their quiet way. 'Delightful--though never disrespectful' (Les Simpson, Time Out New York), Stiff investigates the strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die?" -- Back cover.