To the batcave
The dead generally don’t pull their weight. They don’t cause to much harm, except for when they’re rising again as zombies or vampires… but there is a recently risen corpse that is actually helping us.
His name is… was… is?.. Sir Mark Sykes, and he passed away nearly 90 years ago.
It was his manner of passing, and what subsequently happened to his body that has proved so useful.
Sir Mark Sykes was killed by the Spanish ‘flu virus. He was buried in a lead coffin.
The same virus took around 50 million other people too.
Mr Sykes was exhumed because it is thought that whilst the air-tight coffin has preserved his body, it may also have preserved the virus. Obtaining this DNA could provide us with clues on how the virus mutates, and what made it so potent in the last century.
The scientist in charge, John Oxford says, ‘at the moment we are on the potential verge of the first great outbreak of influenza of the 21st century’.
He should know, being responsible for letting it out of its box again.
Ben on 
Ty on
That was my first thought, too. That they were opening up a box of death.
We should be composting our dead. Or using them as fuel. I’m telling my next of kin to plant me in a vegetable garden or something. I don’t know, I just want my bloated corpse to be of some practical value, besides a great Halloween prank (and I do hate children, so there’s that.)
I’ve always been an organ donor but the last time I went to the DMV for renewal, they asked if I also wanted to donate my body to science. So I’m going to be scraped for parts and recycled. About the only way I’ll see the inside of a medical school.
You could always have yourself turned into a diamond.
I’m donating my body to science.
I donated my body to medicine (my wife’s a doctor) … humina humina …
My thoughts exactly, Joe! I’ve already left instructions to be buried in a burlap sack, with a tree planted over the corpse. That’ll be one healthy tree.
They harvested phosphorous (I think it was phosphorous, anyways) from dead bodies in Brave New World.
Personally, I want to be cremated, and have my ashes dumped in a hole with a tree planted on top. Or some sort of flower. Something alive, anyways.
I would hate for my corpse to be used as a Halloween prank, why should I need to be dead to scare kids?
I’m not what the white coat is implying by the flu outbreak comment. Is he claiming that the research is going to cause the out break, or that there is another cause of outbreak?
i don’t think they’d risk opening it if the virus were going to be allowed to rampage through the populace, as they’d probably be the first to go.
I think the constantly-mutating garden variety flu is becoming harder to fight due to overuse of common medicines, so studying how viruses evolve might help us predict how to fight it in the future
I understand the thought process behind deciding to study the virus and I understand the importance of such research.
What I am not understanding is the ambigousity of the statement regarding the outbreak.
I think he means that something else is going to cause the outbreak and his work has the potential to stop it. Hopefully.
Yummy Spanish Flu, just what everyone needs for Christmas.
On a side note, rising corpses are a big problem in flood prone areas, especially areas in Southeast Asia where it’s becoming more and more of an issue.
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Ah, nosebleeds. An ever present miracle, they remain the funner side of bleeding because unless caused by a punch in the face, they don’t hurt, and unless they carry on for many hours, they don’t last long enough to be annoying. Plus, as Adam said a few strips back, they make you look majorly injured whilst being not so injured.
Hmm, miniscule vampire bats. I wonder if they’re related to my clan of Potato Vampires?
That… makes so much sense…
I understand everything now.
I’ve actually never had a nosebleed before though.