When you see an example of bone, you often see it as white, hard and lifeless. It almost looks rock-like. Bones look this way because of the way they have been preserved, usually bleached and dried out. In fact, bones, like all other tissues in your body are alive.
Like eggshells, mammalian bones and enamel are white because they are mostly composed of CaPO4 (see below).
D., a professor of functional anatomy and evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “The reason is almost certainly mechanical: A less active lifestyle and weaker muscles produce less force across joints, stimulating less bone deposition.”
While colour-based identification is applicable to recent burned bones, fossil bones may be black due to mineral staining, such as by black manganese oxides.
They then use this information to make inferences regarding the burning event. As bone burns, its colour moves from a natural creamy-brown state to dark grey to black to light grey and then pure white.
When you see an example of bone, you often see it as white, hard and lifeless. It almost looks rock-like. Bones look this way because of the way they have been preserved, usually bleached and dried out. In fact, bones, like all other tissues in your body are alive.
What's really returned to you is the person's skeleton. Once you burn off all the water, soft tissue, organs, skin, hair, cremation container/casket, etc., what you're left with is bone. When complete, the bones are allowed to cool to a temperature that they can be handled and are placed into a processing machine.
Owing to its frequent use, the occurrence of green bone discoloration due to antibiotics in the tetracycline class is well understood. Its pigmentation can be seen through delicate, thin tissue as a dark blue-gray.
However, sometimes the bones have a green color to them when they've come into contact with copper or bronze that has begun to degrade. Another reason for green bones after the cremation is because of contact with tetracycline or chromium oxide, which are components in antibiotics given during childhood.
Odax pullus, the greenbone or butterfish, is a species of ray-finned fish, a weed whiting from the family Odacidae, which is found around New Zealand. It inhabits shallow, rocky areas with brown algae growth, mainly Carpophyllum, upon which it grazes.
Data from the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) and the Baltimore Men's Osteoporosis Study (MOST) show that, in both sexes, blacks have higher adjusted bone mineral density than whites and a slower age-adjusted annual rate of decline in bone mineral density.
Most reports suggest that BMD is highest in African-Americans, lowest in Asians, and intermediate in Caucasians, yet Asians have lower fracture rates than Caucasians.
Without bones you'd be just a puddle of skin and guts on the floor. Bones have two purposes. Some, like your backbone, provide the structure which enables you to stand erect instead of lying like a puddle on the floor. Other bones protect the delicate, and sometimes soft, insides of your body.
In general, I soak bones in hydrogen peroxide for 24 hours. This is usually long enough to get them white to my liking. It's important to note that I'm not going for pure white. If you want your bone specimens to be realllly white, then you'll have to do several rounds.
The heart will appear white if it has been drained of blood.
The brain is a pinkish, grayish color, and that's thanks to the parts that compose it. Most of the brain is made of cells called grey matter that are, in fact, gray.
We've witnessed many cremations and never heard a scream. But then again, cremation retorts aren't silent either. Now, bodies do make all kinds of gnarly noises.
The actual ashes are thus useless as they will not contain DNA. It is the bones and teeth that could potentially hold some DNA viable for analysis. However, after the cremation, the bones and teeth left behind are turned into a find powder (a process known as pulverization).
The average cremated adult will produce about five pounds of pulverized bone fragments, a coarse powder that is sterile and safe to touch, even if the person died of a communicable disease.
ARE BONES DRY? Dead bones are dry and brittle, but living bones feel wet and a little soft. They are also slightly flexible, so they can absorb pressure. Like most parts of the body, bones have a network of blood vessels and nerves running through them, and they bleed when broken.
Yellow bone marrow serves primarily as a storehouse for fats but may be converted to red marrow under certain conditions, such as severe blood loss or fever. At birth and until about the age of seven, all human marrow is red, as the need for new blood formation is high.
Collagen is a protein in your body that forms and strengthens bones. If you don't have enough of it, your bones become very weak and will break easily. Most children with brittle bone disease get this gene from only one parent, but it's possible to get it from both.
Hindus believe that the soul of the deceased stays attached to its body even after its demise, and by cremating the body, it can be set free. As a final act, a close family member forcefully strikes the burning corpse's skull with a stick as if to crack it open and release the soul.
In most cases, people are cremated in either a sheet or the clothing they are wearing upon arrival to the crematory. However, most Direct Cremation providers give you and your family the option to fully dress your loved one prior to Direct Cremation.
The only parts of the body that are removed before cremation are artificial ones like a medical device or implant with a battery, silicone, pins, radiation pressurization, pacemakers, and large hip, knee, and shoulder replacements along with any external jewelry.