What happens after we die? Spiritually, who knows. Physically? Your body becomes a festering production line, spewing out more than 400 nasty compounds that would be toxic to your body if you weren’t already dead, as Scientific American explains in this unsettlingly cheery animation.
Sure, at the hands of a skilled mortician, your dead body can look strikingly lifelike at your funeral. But it turns out, when your body stops working to remove toxins and fight off bacteria and vermin, it generates a lot of chemicals you might recognise from hazardous material labels. Freon, benzene, carbon tetrachloride, oh my! At the end, though, everything turns to dust, providing nutrients that plants can extract from the soil. Aww, it’s the circle of life! [Scientific American]