It is one of the only certainties in
life - from the moment we’re born, we’re counting down to the moment we die. Death
is an absolute for almost every living thing, but there are many things
we still don’t know about. Buckle up for fifty insane
facts about death and dying. #50. Death at First Sight When someone expires - especially if they
haven’t been conscious for a while - it can be hard to tell that they’re really
gone. But there’s one way to check - the eyes have it. One of the first signs
of death is that a person’s eyes cloud over, as the body’s functions cease and
oxygen stops flowing to the eyeballs. If a person’s eyes are open, this can happen as
quickly as ten minutes after the time of death. It’s not the body’s only weird effect after death. #49. Growth in Death? It’s been one of the strangest things people have
noticed after their loved one passes away - they swear that their nails and hair keep growing
even after death. Is it possible that these keratin-based body parts are still active
even after all life functions have ceased? In a word - no. What actually happens is that the
body starts drying out. This causes the skin to retract and tighten, which pulls it away from
the hair and nails - making them look longer. And there are many dramatic changes
in the body right after death. #48. Unlucky Stiff It’s one of the most famous parts of death -
rigor mortis. The whole body seems to tighten up and become stiff and hard. This makes the body
hard to move - but it’s only a temporary condition that begins only a few hours after
death. Within a day to five days, the body will loosen up - which makes
prepping it for a funeral much easier. This is a benefit to having
funerals a while after death. But some effects are much...creepier. #47. A Ghostly Noise Imagine, you’re a morgue worker and you’re
handling the latest bodies that came in. Then suddenly, from the closed room
where you’re the only person working, comes a ghastly moan! Time to call the exorcist?
Maybe not. As gases left in a body start to filter out through orifices, this causes the
vocal cords to vibrate. This can make it sound like a corpse is moaning or groaning - a
terrifying effect, but a totally normal one. But absent intervention, the body
will take care of itself after death. #46. Eating at You Did you know that we technically have more
foreign creatures living in us than our own cells? We’re full of bacterial cells at
all times, but our body’s defense mechanisms keep them at bay. As soon as we
die and our body systems cease to function, it’s buffet time for all those normally helpful
bacteria. They’ll start eating at the body, and that lets them multiply much faster and
start the process of decomposition in earnest. And decomposition happens
in a lot of different ways. #45. Wax On, Wax Off Grave wax might sound like a product cemetery
owners use to keep everything in good shape, but it’s actually a natural product. Clinically
known as adipocere, it’s a waxy product caused by decomposition of body fat that forms on the skin
and can often leave the body looking something like a wax figure. This only happens when a body
is under wet conditions with minimal oxygen, and bodies that decompose this
way are a rarity found in museums. Decomposition varies based on conditions. #44. A Grave Timeline How long does it take a body to decompose?
That depends on the conditions. When buried under normal conditions, without the body being
preserved, it will generally take about a year for the body to be reduced to nothing more than
a skeleton. But experiments showed that when a body was kept in consistent fifty-degree weather,
it will be nothing but bones in only four months. But under certain conditions,
decomposition might not happen at all. #43. The Bog Bodies European peat bogs are one of the most unique
places in the world, because they’re cold, low in oxygen, and highly acidic. That means
that bodies there don’t decompose like normal, when pulled out of the bog, can look
perfectly preserved for years - or even thousands of years. When the Tollund Man, an
Iron Age specimen, was found in a Danish bog, his discoverers assumed they had
found the body of a missing person. And in the harshest of conditions,
bodies can become landmarks. #42. A Frozen Warning Mount Everest is one of the most hostile
climates on Earth, with the mountain above a certain point being known as the death zone.
So it’s not a surprise that a lot of people die there - and because on the higher part of
the mountain it never gets below freezing, most of them stay there. It’s too dangerous
and expensive to bring most bodies down, and they don’t decompose when frozen solid,
so corpses like the famous Green Boots become markers that new climbers see, lying there like
they were sleeping, as they climb the mountain. But now, there are easier ways
to keep people from decomposing. #41. Pickling a Person If you’ve chosen the full funeral package for your
loved one, one of the choices you’ll likely have to make is about embalming. This practice uses a
collection of chemicals to preserve the corpse, making it more resistant to decomposition. While
it won’t slow down decomposition indefinitely, it’s a common choice for those who want to
have an open casket funeral - so everyone can stand around talking about
how natural the deceased looks. That’s enough about the body
after death - how do we get there? #40. Running Out the Clock So how long can humans actually live? While
the average lifespan in the United States is in the 70s, that’s driven down by those
who die young. Those who make it to the 70s usually live longer - and a small percentage
make it past 100 and beyond. This tiny group of centenarians and super-centenarians have an
honorary queen in Jeanne Calment, a French woman who is the documented oldest person to ever
live - making it to a shocking 122 years old! So how many people have ever died? #39. It’s Crowded Down There The world is more crowded than it’s ever
been, but we’re still only a tiny fraction of the population of the world that’s already
passed on. There are currently more than seven billion people on Planet Earth - but the total
population of the planet over all of history is more than 108 billion. That means that
a hundred billion people have already died - which is probably not a good sign for
the living if the zombie wars ever come to pass. But what actually puts people underground? #38. Common Cause The United States has kept track of the
most common causes of death for a long time, and it’s mostly steady. The most
common cause of all? Heart disease, which not surprisingly takes out many
of the elderly. Cancer isn’t far behind, but #3 is accidental injury - which is the most
common cause of death for all age groups between one year old and forty-four. Once you get older,
it’s your own body that’s more likely to get you. But one cause of death isn’t
a cause of death at all. #37. No Exit You hear about it so often - an old person
dies of old age. Well, people may say it, but you’ll never see it on a death certificate.
That’s because no one has ever died of old age. What actually happens is that as people reach old
age, the immune system weakens. It becomes easier for them to catch illnesses, and their body
can’t repair the damage as quickly. So while old age won’t kill them, it becomes a game of
attrition for what illness will finish the job. But can you die from...water? #36. Too Much of a Good Thing Sure, you can die from water - drowning kills many
people, and scalding water can cause fatal burns. But simply drinking too much can kill you
as well. A woman who drank six liters of water in three hours to win a contest
died of hyponatremia, or water overdose. But unlike other overdoses, this isn’t poisoning.
What actually happens is that you drink too much water for your body to process, which causes the
sodium levels in the blood to dilute fatally. And speaking of water… #35. A Wet Reveal If you wanted to kill someone, getting rid
of their body in the water would seem to be smart. After all, everyone would just assume they
drowned, right? Not if forensic scientists are on the case. Because the body stops functioning
after death, detectives can figure out if someone was dead before they hit the water by looking at
their lungs. If someone drowned, their lungs will have filled up with water, while a corpse dumped
in the water would still have lungs full of air. But not all methods for solving
murder held up with time. #34. The Eyes Have It When someone was murdered in the 19th century,
investigators did something unusual - they would remove the victim’s eyes and dissect them. This
is because they believed that the eyes were like cameras, capturing images - and their killer’s
image was the last thing they ever saw. Not surprisingly, though, they never
seemed to find where that image was stored, and this became one of many weird scientific
ideas that didn’t survive the march of progress. Some causes of death are a lot
rarer than you might think. #33. Not So Scary When someone paddles into the
water, they’re no doubt keeping an eye out for any hungry finned predators.
But dying of a shark attack is incredibly rare - and more people die of selfie-related
incidents per year. Likewise, skydiving seems like a terrifying and dangerous activity,
but the technology is surprisingly safe. More people die per year in dance parties and
nightclubs than die by falling from an airplane. But three days of the year may
be deadlier than any other. #32. Nothing Like the Holidays What days are likeliest to end in death?
Well, if we’re talking about natural causes, they shoot up on Christmas, the next day, and
New Years’ Day. While murders and suicides actually decrease during the holidays, many
people who might be feeling sick will put off treatment because they don’t want to check into
the hospital on a holiday - and by then it might be too late. Add in many top doctors taking
the holiday off, and it can be a deadly combo. But one cause of death may outstrip all the other. #31. The Ultimate Plague What’s the deadliest disease of all time?
No, it’s not Covid-19, the Spanish Flu, or even the Black Death. Instead, it’s
a common disease that has been ravaging the world for centuries - Malaria.
It’s so deadly because it’s spread by mosquitoes - and as anyone who ever tried to
have a barbecue outside in the summer knows, those things are everywhere. It kills more
than half a million people in most years, and likely killed far more in the past
when medical treatment wasn’t as advanced. For many, death comes quickly -
but what happens when it’s slower? #30. The Last to Go When people die due to illness, organ failure, or
cancer, they can often convalesce in the hospital or hospice facilities for an extended period,
being kept comfortable with medicine. When they reach the final stage and their death is
imminent, their senses will begin failing them, although they’re often too sedated to react.
But one sense is the last to go - hearing, which allows their loved ones to keep
talking to them up until the very end. Some deaths are a lot less
peaceful than that, though. #29. Execute This The death penalty became a lot less common in the
20th century, with many nations including all of Western Europe abolishing it due to human rights
concerns. But fifty-three nations around the world still execute their worst criminals - and
they use a variety of methods. While the United States’ favored method is lethal injection,
you’ll find states and other countries that use the electric chair, the gas chamber, the
firing squad, hanging, and even beheading. But which country executes the most people? #28. The Final Countdown The United States only executed 22 people in
2019 - mostly due to the lengthy appeals process and the fact that many states no longer have
the death penalty. It’s believed that the country with the most executions is China,
executing over a thousand people in the same year - but they don’t release execution
data, classifying it as a state secret. That makes the official champion Iran,
which executed 251 people in 2019. But one method of execution
has fallen out of favor. #27. The Chopping Block It’s one of the most infamous inventions
of all time - the guillotine. A sharp blade attached to a machine that will
cleave a head from the neck in a second. But it was first conceived
of by Dr. Joseph Ignace-Guillotin, a French physician, as a humanitarian invention.
He believed it would be a painless and humane way to carry out executions - despite opposing the
death penalty himself. He would then watch as it was used to carry out countless political
executions during the Reign of Terror. It seems to be the standard at every cemetery,
but why are graves dug six feet deep? It’s a lot of work - and a health hazard for
anyone who might trip into it. It turns out that the root of the tradition comes back to
the Black Death, the deadly plague that ravaged Europe. In the year 1665, London was suffering
an outbreak, and the Mayor decreed that all bodies should be buried six feet underground to
try to stem the spread of disease from corpses. But the traditional burial
may be falling out of fashion. #24. Burning Up Cremation, where the body is burned
in a powerful oven and the remnants are returned to the loved ones, is becoming
a popular alternative to burials. In fact, it’s actually surpassed the popularity of burial
in the United States, and it’s estimated that by 2040 as many as 80 percent of people may
choose cremation. This is because burial plots are becoming increasingly costly, and cremation
offers lower costs and increased flexibility. But there’s one common misconception. #23. Where’s the Ash? We’ve all met someone who had grandma’s ashes
on the mantelpiece - or did they? One of the most common misconceptions about cremation
is that there are ashes involved - but what is actually returned to the family isn’t ash at
all. It’s a fine powder usually known as bone ash, but what it actually contains is the minerals in
the bones. The powerful ovens burn away everything else clean, and the mineral content is all that’s
left. Still, keep the cat away from the urn. But ashes don’t need to stay on the mantle. #22. Going Out In Style Cremation ashes are sterile, non-toxic, and
odorless, which means they can be incorporated into just about anything safely. So if you
want a more permanent memento of a loved one, they can be compressed into gemstones.
If you want to celebrate their interests, the ashes can be mixed into paint or
used in ink for sheet music. And if you really want to send them out with a bang,
companies can mix the remains with gunpowder and design a custom batch of fireworks - a
perfect way to send off that rowdy uncle. But one use for cremation remains
may last far longer than the person. #21. Growing After Death For the environmentally-minded, there’s a way to
leave a positive impact on the world after death. A person is cremated, and their remains are
placed in a biodegradable urn alongside a tree seed. The urn is buried in a suitable place,
the urn degrades and opens in the soil - and soon a tree grows from the person’s remains.
After a few years, the tree becomes a perfect place for the loved ones to gather under the
shade their departed family member provided. But around the world, burial rites
take on some very unique forms. #20. Make It Loud Funerals are usually solemn occasions, but in
New Orleans you might mistake it for a party. With elements taken from African, French, and
Black American traditions, these Big Easy funeral processions are led by a big jazz band blowing
horns. They play traditional funeral music at first, but after the burial, the tone shifts
- and everyone cuts loose. They’ll play upbeat dance marches, the mourners will dance in the
streets, and send their loved one off in style. But not all the fun is saved
for those who are buried. #19. Smoke and Mirrors On the island of Bali, cremation can be a
dramatic, all-day affair. The locals believe that cremation releases the soul and sends it off to
its next destination, so it’s common for elaborate cremations and burnings to be held publicly. But
none was more dramatic than the cremation of the head of their royal family in 2008. His body was
placed inside a massive wooden bull and burned in the presence of a giant dragon statue,
in a mass funeral along with 68 other dead. But some traditions are a lot more modern. #18. Fantasy Funeral Have you seen any footage of Ghanian
funerals? Those guys like to live it up! Not only do they have some great dances, but
they’re known for a unique coffin industry called “Fantasy Coffins”. These are like those race
car beds you had as a kid - only forever. People are buried in decorated coffins that
look like the thing they loved most in life, ranging from a Mercedes-Benz for a rich man, to a
giant bible for a particularly devout churchgoer! In some cultures, the traditions
don’t end with the burial. #17. Turn, Turn, Turn In Madagascar, you might be surprised
to see people digging up a grave. These aren’t grave-robbers or witch-doctors -
they’re the loved ones of the person in the grave. The Malagasy people have a unique tradition
where every seven years, they exhume bones, wrap them in cloth, perform a ritual dance,
and tell stories of the dead. If you think this probably smells terrible, you’re right - which is
why they start by spraying the bones with wine. This next tradition is not for the faint of heart. #16. Burial in the Sky Buddhists believe the body is not important
after death, because the soul has migrated to a new being as part of reincarnation. Thus,
they pay tribute to the dead and then cut it up into pieces. Rather than burying it where
it’s of no use to anyone but the worms, they place the body on a mountaintop
and let the vultures pick the bones clean. While it’s an ancient tradition, it’s
still practiced regularly in Tibet today. But few places have more unique burial
traditions than the Philippines. #15. Smoke ‘em Up The Philippines have many ethnic groups,
and many have their own traditions. The Tinguian people have a strange tradition
where they give their dead a makeover, dressing them in the best clothes available, and
then sit them on a chair at the memorial service. They then place a lit cigarette in their
mouth. Hey, at least the dead look relaxed. Another group has a very different tradition. #14. Hollow Ground The Caviteno people live near the city of
Manila, but their tradition is definitely not a city one. They bury their dead not
in the ground, but in hollow tree trunks. But not just any tree. When a person knows they
are nearing death due to illness or old age, they go out and pick their own burial
tree. It’s even common for the person to live in a little hut by their death tree
while their family works to hollow it out. But whatever the culture, death
is the end of the road...right? #13. What Comes Next The belief in the afterlife is common across
the world, with almost every religion having some concept of life after death. Some believe in
reincarnation, as each soul becomes a totally new person or other being after death. Others
believe in ascending to a higher plane of existence or becoming part of some cosmic
being. Others believe that the first thing you see after death is a judge - to determine if
you’ve lived well enough to enter the afterlife. But there’s no proof of any of this...right? #12. Back from the Dead? Surprisingly, there are a lot of people who
claim to have seen what comes after death. These are usually people who nearly died due
to their heart stopping and were revived, be it due to a heart attack or a surgical
mishap. They often report seeing a white light or hearing voices. One boy, Colton Burpo,
even reported seeing heaven and meeting people who were dead before he was born - and
wrote a book about it with his father. But are these afterlife encounters proof
of anything - or just the brain’s tricks? #11. Closer to Earth Neuroscientists who have studied the brain at
the moment of death report that it releases an increased amount of hormones that cause positive
feelings at the moment of death. This means that near-death experiences could be caused by these
hormones, making people feel at peace and safe during their moment of greatest distress. But
how does this explain children knowing things they have no way of knowing? Well, skeptics
point at an old-fashioned solution - dad may be coaching his son. Harder to explain is
one woman who floated out of her body and saw a pair of sneakers on the hospital roof- only
to have a nurse fetch them after she woke up. But has anyone seen...the other place? #10. Oh Hell People reporting seeing the bad ending in the
afterlife is much rarer, but those who did come back deeply disturbed. They report darkness,
anguish, and distress - and a few have gotten much more detailed. When a man was shot in the
head and spent an extended period in a coma, he awoke reporting that he spent that
time being tortured in a terrible realm of fire and hopelessness. While he had
a religious awakening and wrote a book, most doctors believe this was the
product of the brain trauma he endured. But what do those who came the
closest to death have to say? #9. Back from Beyond When Velma Thomas had a heart attack in 2008, she
took a turn for the worse and was soon pronounced dead. Doctors tried to induce hypothermia to lower
her body temperature, but it seemed to be no use, and she was without brain activity for seventeen
hours as her family was called in to say goodbye. But when she was taken off life
support, she suddenly started waking up? The fifty-nine-year-old woman eventually
recovered and came home, but when asked about what she remembered from her time in
the great beyond, the answer was...nothing. Death is universal - but a full life means
something very different for different beings. #8. The Blink of an Eye The average human lifespan is in the seventies,
solidly on the upper range of animals. But some animals live a full life in a much shorter
time. Panther chameleons only live about a year, which means the previous generation is almost
entirely gone before the next generation hatches from their eggs. Drone ants only live three
weeks, dying soon after mating with females. But nothing tops the mayfly, which is
born with one purpose - to reproduce. They spend most of their time as nymphs, and
only have a total lifespan of twenty-four hours. But some animals can put humans to shame. #7. The Heavy Hitters Elephants are one of the few land mammals
with a similar lifespan to humans. If you can’t stand the thought of losing another
pet, you might want to consider a Macaw - these colorful birds can live for up to eighty years.
Bowhead whales are the longest-living mammal, with lifespans of over two hundred
years - one was even found with harpoon fragments from the 1800s still in it! But
no large animal tops the Greenland Shark, whose slow growth cycle means they
can live up to five hundred years. But for the longest-lived organism of all,
you’ll have to leave the animal kingdom. #6. Standing Tall What is the longest any living organism
on Earth has escaped death? That would be found in California’s White Mountains - a
mighty bristlecone pine tree named Methuselah, for the notoriously long-lived biblical figure. How old is this tree? Almost five thousand years
old, which means it has been standing tall on the North American continent before the Great
Pyramid of Giza was even on the drawing board. But is death truly an inevitability
for everyone - and everything? #5. A Tight Squeeze You might have heard the rumor that lobsters
are immortal. Well, that’s obviously not true - they wouldn’t wind up on dinner plates
if they were. But these sea crustaceans do not die of old age. They shed their shells and
grow a new one, essentially renewing their body periodically. The problem is, eventually
they get too big to escape their shell, and wind up getting stuck in an old one and
dying that way. Not even the lobster can escape. But one creature might have figured
out the secret to immortality. #4. The Immortal Jellyfish One species seems to have the process for
avoiding death indefinitely - Turritopsis Dohrnii, a tiny jellyfish found in oceans around
the world. They have a full life cycle, until they reach their dying medusa stage - at
which point they avoid death by turning back into a tiny ball of cells that begins the life cycle
anew. So they renew their life indefinitely - but are they truly the same being, or an identical
clone? For a simple jellyfish, there’s really no difference - but for a human with a mind and
personality, it’s a much bigger question. But will humans eventually figure
out the way to conquer death? #3. The Deep Freeze Some people are already working on it. A
cottage industry has emerged of people being cryogenically frozen, in the hopes that they
can eventually be revived in the future. The law dictates that cryogenic freezing can only
happen after the person is pronounced dead, and it is most commonly practiced by
those who die of incurable diseases. At least two hundred and fifty people
are frozen in the United States, and 1500 more have signed up. But contrary
to rumors, Walt Disney was not one of them. But some people have talked about
another form of life after death. #2. Living in the Cloud The development of the digital world has
led some people to wonder - could we live forever as digital thoughtforms? The idea is
that a process would be developed to read the brain patterns of a person and upload them to
the digital world, allowing the person’s mind to continue to exist after death. It sounds
great - except that the technology doesn’t exist. While research is ongoing, it’s more of a
topic for science-fiction stories right now. But while humans try to escape
death, death just keeps on coming. #1. Keep on Reaping The good news for humanity is that the
global birth rate continues to outpace the global death rate, and the population keeps
growing no matter what diseases are out there. The bad news? A lot of people are dying from all
sorts of causes. It’s estimated that the global death rate is about 7.7 per one thousand
people - a little under one percent of the population every year. Which means a lot of people
looking over their shoulder for the grim reaper. For more on what happens after death, check out “Best Evidence of Life After
Death” or watch this video instead.
