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Decomposition in a sterile environment
How would a mammalian corpse decay in a sterile but habitable environment?
That is, you've got a body, with all its healthy microflora, in a space that has chemistry, temperature, and humidity in the normal ranges, but no other living things.
I've done a bunch of google searches, around 'decay' and 'sterile' and all I've found is references to bodies in actively hostile environments like bogs and ice and salt pans.
Would a body in that situation mummify somehow, like the ones in the bogs and ice, or would it stay creepily unaltered for a long time, or would the body's own native bacteria &etc take over the decomposition job and turn it in to dirt? And if the native microflora did decay the body, would it be in a notably 'weird' way, compared to normal decomp? (Note that I just need a vague idea of what might be there several decades later - this isn't a murder mystery.)
Surely somebody's done that experiment? Or at least Temperance Brennan has?
That is, you've got a body, with all its healthy microflora, in a space that has chemistry, temperature, and humidity in the normal ranges, but no other living things.
I've done a bunch of google searches, around 'decay' and 'sterile' and all I've found is references to bodies in actively hostile environments like bogs and ice and salt pans.
Would a body in that situation mummify somehow, like the ones in the bogs and ice, or would it stay creepily unaltered for a long time, or would the body's own native bacteria &etc take over the decomposition job and turn it in to dirt? And if the native microflora did decay the body, would it be in a notably 'weird' way, compared to normal decomp? (Note that I just need a vague idea of what might be there several decades later - this isn't a murder mystery.)
Surely somebody's done that experiment? Or at least Temperance Brennan has?