A look inside the world of forensics examines the use of human cadavers in a wide range of endeavors, including research into new surgical procedures, space exploration, and a Tennessee human decay research facility.

A head is a terrible thing to waste: practicing surgery on the dead -- Crimes of anatomy: body-snatching and other sordid tales from the dawn of human dissection -- Life after death: on human decay and what can be done about it -- Dead man driving: human crash test dummies and the ghastly, necessary science of impact tolerance -- Beyond the black box: when the bodies of the passengers must tell the story of a crash -- The cadaver who joined the army: the sticky ethics of bullets and bombs -- Holy cadaver: the crucifixion experiments -- How to know if you're dead: beating-heart cadavers, live burial, and the scientific search for the soul -- Just a head: decapitation, reanimation, and the human head transplant -- Eat me: medicinal cannibalism and the case of the human dumplings -- Out of the fire, into the compost bin: and other new ways to end up -- Remains of the author: will she or won't she?.