The colossal squid that was caught last year is in the process of being thawed prior to a public dissection. The Te Papa Museum of New Zealand is pulling out all the stops and are going to have webcams recording every step of the process — the schedule of events is online. I’ll be watching.
This is an extremely cool thing to do, and a mark of respect for this magnificent animal — I wish I could have this sort of dismantlement done to me after I’m dead. Both my fans and my critics would enjoy it, but on the downside, my family would probably be a bit distressed, and to be honest, human cadavers are cheap and common and nowhere near as interesting as a dead colossal squid.
Crazy as it sounds, I’ve always found the giant and collosal squid slightly disapointing becuase when reading about them as a kid I imagined them 3 to 4 times larger (I think mostly becuase I grew up with metric and I had been reading about them in imperial).
“I wish I could have this sort of dismantlement done to me after I’m dead.”
Not me. I want to be boiled down and served in a hearty stew at my memorial service. That way, all of the guests can take a part of me with them.
I’m not sure stew would be right for my own obsequies, as some of my friends are vegetarian. I do like the idea, though, of being planted beneath the seedling of some fruit tree. As my body decomposed, it would nourish the young tree; when the tree was mature, people could enjoy the fruit for years to come, and I would have done my bit to bring that about.
I would love to be fed to a bunch of lions somewhere, unfortunately that probably wouldn’t be allowed as it would give them a taste for human flesh and thus make them more dangerous.
I could always go on a one-way trip to the Arctic and try to get killed by a polar bear. Spend my last night staring at the Aurora Borealis… would be quite beautiful.
hahah you’re hilarious
Jackal: it’s not safe. You can get prion diseases this way, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuru_(disease) for an example.
Much much cooler than the “alien autopsy” of a few years ago…
“human cadavers are cheap and common and nowhere near as interesting as a dead colossal squid”
Actually, at least here in the UK, there’s a _shortage_ of cadavers for dissection. Too few people are willing to donate their bodies to teach medical students anatomy.
I wish I could have this sort of dismantlement done to me after I’m dead.
Don’t you need to have a mantle before you can be dismantled?
OT- PZ
Your new picture (top left of page) are you in London next to the Thames? (Passport in pocket puts you off North America and bus on bridge etc… puts you in London)
-DU-
“I wish I could have this sort of dismantlement done to me after I’m dead.”
You can.
http://www.bodyworlds.com/en.html
@ #10
Oh feh! I just noticed the filename of the pic… never mind :-[
-DU-
I want to be dismantled and fed to a colossal squid!
I much prefer the widespread, immediate, public dissemination of knowledge inherent in this display of science to the masses over the sadly ineffective, wholly inappropriate, and quite illegal religious display like the sackcloth and ash bullshit that the mayor of Birmingham, AL just recently put on and broadcast to the masses.
I see this as a testament to the advancement of not only the knowledge in science, but also the advancement of its desire to spread that knowledge to everyone interested, as soon as it is available. I’ll definitely be watching!
oh man- like I need another reason to go to NZ again!
Te Papa is a great museum as well. Bah.
Yes, that is PZ in London. Somewhere on the southbank of the Thames, near Southwark I would think. Taken a few years ago as the Swiss Re building (aka The Gherkin) is not on the skyline of the City behind him. I think the cranes mark the construction site.
#3: Mrs Tilton says:
I’m not sure that it would offend a vegetarian to eat meat from an animal that made a conscious decision to be eaten. Maybe I should keep ideas like that quiet though. I can already hear it being twisted to something like, “Liberal vegetarian promotes cannibalism.”
This sounds amazing, I’ll unfortunately be away on vacation and without internet for the whole process. Hope someone does the world a service of putting it on youtube or something of the sort.
Re: #16
“The Gherkin” is on the skyline to the right of PZ’s head.
“– I wish I could have this sort of dismantlement done to me after I’m dead.”
PZ, you have a squiddy mantle??
“I wish I could have this sort of dismantlement done to me after I’m dead.”
Not me. I want to be boiled down and served in a hearty stew at my memorial service. That way, all of the guests can take a part of me with them.
Posted by: Jackal | April 27, 2008 10:23 AM
So, you would like to be groked? Are you a member of the church of all-worlds? (Someone here better get this reference.)
Where is PZ? On the downstream pedestrian footway across Hungerford Bridge (rail) – nearer to the South Bank than the other side of the river. Bridge behind him is Waterloo built mostly by women, trees behind the bus in the gardens at Temple.
For literary types – if he headed from here to the other bank and through Charing Cross Station he’d have stepped over the spot where the 8-year-old Charles Dickens was put to work in a blacking factory.
Is there a way to request that when you die (as long as its not due to a bone shattering car/train/skydiving accident) that you can request to have your skeleton cleaned off and made into a science demo?
I always wondered about the previous owner of the first human skull that I touched in one of my anth. classes. Yes I did the ‘alas poor Yorick’ bit. But I really wondered and I would like to have my head bones fondled and scrutinized by future kids.
You got it. I think I was on my way for a ride on the London Eye, and for a browse through the bookseller’s collections.
i think i’d like to donate any still-usable organs to people who need them after my death. i’m not sure if that’s an option for a colossal squid. can they donate organs to other squid?
#17:
I think Douglas Adams beat you to the idea…
Here comes my sales pitch:
Consider getting an autopsy. Why?
– accurate diagnosis of the cause of death and other health problems you may have. This is helpful information for your family and also increases the accuracy of your recorded cause of death. This improves the accuracy of statistical and epidemiologic data.
– educational contribution, especially if you have your autopsy done in a teaching hospital.
– organ donation is possible, depending on circumstances.
– little disruption to the usual course of funeral services and burial or cremation. You may not care about these rituals but some family members might.
– you will, in fact, be at least partially dismantled.
– don’t sell yourself short. To an autopsy pathologist, any cadaver is fascinating.
I’d love to decompose at the University of Kentucky’s Body Farm when I die!
Oops I meant Tennessee, and my link didn’t work. Double drat.
I was @ Te Papa yesterday and I didn’t smell this!! Obviously it wasn’t in the public gallery. (Although the video experience of the sperm whale catching squid was cool). I’ll have to send the kids back there to see whether they can see it live!
PZ come visit and do some lecture stuff too please!
Thats so cool and good to know the New Zealanders still have their sense of humour. Check out the caption in the bottom (final) photo of the Images gallery on the website. Subtle but funny.
I for one, will make time to watch the dissection, the webcam images are extremely clear and speedy.
Who says real comedy (Shakespeare, Gilbert & Sullivan, Wilde, Twain) is a thing of the past? It is alive and well!
Ooh, ooh, it’s started! Well, the curtain raiser (Architeuthis) anyway. I used to do this to enoploteuthids when I was doing my MSc. Some species only had a mantle length of 20mm – a lot of it was microscope work. This looks much more fun. Not that enoploteuthids aren’t fun, of course…
Hmm, or maybe not. Looks like they’re just flicking a few tentacles around and talking for the (presumably) Discovery Channel camera. Coming up to midday local time, they’ll probably break for lunch soon.
I live in Wellington, and may have to go out and see this.
I’m on holiday, I live perhaps half an hour away from Te Papa – surely, it’d be folly not too.
They’ve had other giant/colossal squid in before which I’ve seen, and it’s always been interesting to watch.
Nice to see NZ making the news! For some reason this is big here. It was mentioned several times on National Radio, and even people at work are going to squidcam!
There’s a link to the National Radio (sorry, Radio New Zealand National) report at http://www.radionz.co.nz/nr/programmes/morningreport
These are indeed exciting times for New Zealand cephalopod fans!
You might consider the environmentally friendly solution developed in Sweden by a company called “Promessa”, through which you get freeze-dried, then powdered and used as fertilizer to grow a plant.
For a fascinating overview of all the useful things you can do when you’re dead (in Denver or elsewhere), read science writer Mary Roach’s excellent and unusual book “Stiff: The Strange Lives of Human Cadavers”.
Yay!! I live in Wellington, and I’ve been wondering since they caught that thing when they’ll unvail it for public view!
Cryogenic Storage for me! I will awaken not in heaven, but IN THE FUTURE!
“I was @ Te Papa yesterday and I didn’t smell this!! Obviously it wasn’t in the public gallery.”
I suspect they’d be doing it at the Taranaki street complex, off the road near the top end.