Liquid Nitrogen & Corpses

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Anyone have a clue what would happen if you bury a corpse directly into the ground after its been kept in liquid nitrogen? Does liquid nitrogen really make stuff turn into glass or is this just a myth? I did a little netsurfing and found something on using nitrogen to lower body temperature to make a corpse into compost... but for some reason goggle doesn't specifically have this answer .

I'm posting a link with Nitrogen chemical properties in case it helps.

http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/n.htm

As I understand it liquid nitrogen doesn't turn anything to glass but most things when frozen to extremely low temperatures become very brittle which causes them to break like glass yes. If someone put a frozen corpse in the ground? If it was hot enough the frozen ice would crack with gases trying to escape but most likely it would just thaw. Our bodies are nutrients like any organism when we die we are meant to feed the plants (well decomposers first) as the circle of life continues.

Mythbusters did a show where they put a pig head in liquid nitrogen and then smashed it with a hammer. It didn't shatter. They were re-enacting a movie so they only put it in the liquid nitrogen for a few minutes, I think. I'm sure you could find a video somewhere on the net.

Yeah that is probably true only flowers or things that are already thin since a big chunk of ice doesn't really shatter easily.

Believe it or not, dipping corpses in liquid nitrogen is a legitimate method of burial. It's called eco-burial or freeze-dry burial. The body is dipped in liquid nitrogen then broken up into fine particles via sound vibrations. You can then take the remains and sprinkle them over your garden where they will melt and become compost. It's all the rage in Europe.

Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/3473103.stm
http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/ ... o-compost/

Sounds like a handy way to dispose of murder victims.

I heard there is a new way of burial where they put the body under pressure and break it down with I think acids? Anyway it dissolves the body and is green b/c it takes less energy than cremation or so I heard.

Because liquid nitrogen is really, really cold, it is able to suck the heat out of items placed in it very quickly.
Depending on surface area and density, and how much liquid nitrogen you have, you can cool a human body to the same temperature as liquid nitrogen.
The problem is, how quickly will the body freeze completely.
The human body is about 80% H2O or water.
When water freezes, it expands, causing the cellular structures to be ruptured, if the freezing is slow enough. If quickly done, the cellular membrane freezes before it can rupture, but the cellular structure would probably be compromised, and when the corpsicle is planted, the heat transfer from the ground would allow the slow release of fluids from the damaged cells, allowing rapid liquid loss, and the thawing would also allow for rapid decomposition.

As to your question on shattering the corpsicle, remember, in winter in northern states, people drive large vehicles on lake ice. The ice has to be 4 or more inches thick to support a pickup truck, but hitting it with a hammer will not shatter it. I therefore suspect that the trunk of the corpsicle would be almost as difficult to shatter.

The name of the method escapes me at the moment but it's not entirely new. People have been doing it to dispose of horse and cow carcasses for years. The carcass is put in a high pressure chamber filled with lye or a similar substance. Within a few days the bones and tissue liquefy and are safe to dispose of through an ordinary waste water drain. I don't think this is in practice with humans yet as many would find the thought of human remains joining the public water source (even if perfectly safe) disturbing.