A first!: 20,000,000-year-old spider preserved in amber with droplets of blood! (bbc.co.uk)

"A scientist has described a spider that was trapped and preserved in amber 20 million years ago. Palaeontologist Dr David Penney, of the University of Manchester, found the 4cm long by 2cm wide fossil during a visit to a museum in the Dominican Republic. Since the discovery two years ago, he has used droplets of blood in the amber to reveal the age of the specimen. It is thought to be the first time spider blood has been found in amber and scientists hope to extract its DNA...."

Body Worlds opens in Toronto (theglobeandmail.com)

"People outside of anatomy classes will have an opportunity for a rare look at human innards. A collection of plastically preserved human bodies, a bridge between science and art, is on display at the Ontario Science Centre until Feb. 26.,,, The pathologist, former East Bloc dissident and one-time ballroom dancer invented a technique for preserving cadavers on a cellular level. Plastination, as it is called, is a process that replaces natural fluids in the body with reactive plastics that are initially fluid, but then harden. Still, Dr. von Hagens is not nearly as macabre as one might expect...."

Egyptian mummy exhibit opens in Houston (chron.com)

"Egyptian priest Nesperennub undoubtedly would've been amazed that his body — mummifed around 800 B.C. — would be subjected to a CT scan 2,800 years later. But virtual-reality imaging has shaken the dust off the reputation of Egyptology. And modern techniques for viewing mummies do them no harm, either physically, or — based on ancient Egyptian beliefs — spiritually. Mummy: The Inside Story opens at the Houston Museum of Natural Science today. Nesperennub made the trip from the British Museum in London in the belly of a transatlantic jet, his first journey to the United States...."

Cousins plead guilty in death of child who was found mummified in basement (nytimes.com; free registration required)

"It was one of New Jersey's most gruesome child abuse cases, a 7-year-old boy's mummified body stuffed into a plastic container only a few feet from where his two starving brothers were kept in a locked basement with a bucket for a toilet. The family had been investigated for child abuse or neglect 10 times over as many years, but a caseworker overwhelmed by 107 other cases failed to follow up on a report that they were being beaten and burned. On Tuesday, two of the boy's cousins pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the death of the child, Faheem Williams, in a case that aroused national outrage and laid bare the failures of the state's child welfare system....."

A greener ending: Freeze-dried corpses to be turned into mulch (telegraph.co.uk) 

"A town in Sweden plans to become the first place in the world where corpses will be disposed of by freeze-drying, as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation or burial. Jonkoping, in southern Sweden, is to turn its crematorium into a so-called promatorium next year. Swedes will then have the chance to bury their dead according to the pioneering method, which involves freezing the body, dipping it in liquid nitrogen and gently vibrating it to shatter it into powder. This is put into a small box made of potato or corn starch and placed in a shallow grave, where it will disintegrate within six to 12 months...."

Light, medium, or dark?: Computerized images used in King Tut exhibit cause controversy (tuscaloosanews.com)

"Black activists say computer-generated portraits of King Tut that are scheduled to go on display at a museum exhibit in December wrongly depict the young Egyptian as white. Teams of researchers reviewed recent CT scans and forensic data of the mummified corpse to create the images. They show him with light, medium and dark skin, said Terry Garcia, executive vice president for mission programs at National Geographic Society, an exhibit co-sponsor.... But earlier research by New Zealand, British and African scholars determined Tut was black...."

'Body Worlds' to open October 7 (yahoo.com)

"On October 7, 2005, The Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia opens Dr. Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, an exhibition that has awed more than 17 million people worldwide. In this 22,000-square-foot exhibition, guests learn about anatomy, physiology and health by viewing real human bodies that have been preserved through the remarkable process of plastination. After presentations in Los Angeles and Chicago, Philadelphia will be BODY WORLDS' first stop on the East Coast. BODY WORLDS is open to the public through April 23, 2006...."

Plans to display Llullaillaco children, well-preserved Incan mountaintop mummies, cause protests from indigenous groups (guardian.co.uk) 

"They are the most perfectly preserved mummies in the world - their skin so intact that they look practically alive, their clothes still bright and new, the remains of their last meal still undigested inside their stomachs. But plans to put on display the remains of three 500-year-old Inca children have run into resistance from Argentinian indigenous groups who consider the project an insult to their ancestors and even some scientists who have expressed misgivings about the project. The mummies were found in 1999 by a National Geographic team on the 22,000-foot (6,700m) peak of Llullaillaco, a mountain in the Andes between Argentina and Chile. The three children, two girls and a boy aged between six and 15, were left on the peak to freeze to death in the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Spanish colonists in America, apparently as a human sacrifice. But a combination of high altitude, low oxygen and humidity levels as well as zero-degree temperatures has produced a near-miraculous preservation...."

Ötzi scientist on mission to publicize theory of his death (ansa.it) 

"The famed prehistoric hunter known as the Iceman was a tribal leader assassinated in a power struggle, an Austrian academic claims. Professor Walter Leitner of Innsbruck University is bidding to demolish the most widely accepted version of the Iceman's death: that he was shot by another hunter prepared to kill for deer. According to this theory, based on valley flora found in his stomach, the Iceman was hit by the hunter's arrow in a mountain prairie but managed to stagger up to the glacier where he was found 5,000 years later. Instead, Leitner claims on the basis of new X-rays, the arrow wound was so devastating that it killed him in a matter of minutes...."

Mother accused of killing infant a year ago (nj.com)

"The mummified corpse of a newborn baby girl found at the bottom of an apartment building air shaft in West New York was thrown there at least a year ago by 18-year-old Lucila Ventura, investigators said yesterday...."

Mummified infant found at bottom of apartment building airshaft, a day after another infant rescued from same shaft (nj.com)

"The mummified corpse of a baby was found yesterday at the bottom of the same West New York apartment building air shaft where police on Tuesday rescued a live newborn allegedly thrown out of a bathroom window by his teenage mother. The shocking discovery has turned an already bizarre case into a murder mystery, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said.... On Tuesday, Lucila Ventura, an 18-year-old junior at Memorial High School, was arrested after allegedly throwing her newborn baby down the air shaft of the 64th Street apartment building.... West New York police returned to the building yesterday and were continuing their investigation into Tuesday's incident when they discovered the mummified remains of a full-term baby at the bottom of the air chute, DeFazio said.... "

Chinese cosmetic company uses skin from executed prisoners to develop collagen products to erase wrinkles (guardian.co.uk)

"A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe.... Agents for the firm have told would-be customers it is developing collagen for lip and wrinkle treatments from skin taken from prisoners after they have been shot. The agents say some of the company's products have been exported to the UK, and that the use of skin from condemned convicts is 'traditional' and nothing to 'make such a big fuss about'...."

Secrets of Egyptian physicians on display at Metropolitan Museum (nytimes.com; free registration required)

"The ancient Egyptians left proof of their scientific prowess for people to marvel at for millennia. Their engineering skills can still be seen at Giza, their star charts in Luxor, their care for head wounds on Fifth Avenue. Head wounds? Yes, and the ancients treated broken arms, cuts, even facial wrinkles - vanity is not a modern invention - and they used methods as advanced as rudimentary surgery and a sort of proto-antibiotics. As for Fifth Avenue, it, like the Valley of the Kings, is a place of hidden treasures. What researchers call the world's oldest known medical treatise, an Egyptian papyrus offering 4,000-year-old wisdom, has long dwelled in the rare books vault at the New York Academy of Medicine.... It is about to become much better known. After a short trip down Fifth (insert down-the-Nile metaphor here) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the papyrus will go on public display, probably for the first time, on Tuesday, as part of the Met's exhibition "The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt." The show will also include items like a CAT scan of a mummy, surgical needles and other medical artifacts...."

Rent-a-corpse for museum exhibition? Yes, but where do they come from? (palmbeachpost.com)

"With the "Bodies" exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa, China has finally broken the ultimate taboo: It is renting out the preserved corpses of its own citizens, for public display. This is very unusual, even for China. Reverence for the dead is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture. Funerals are showy, elaborate events, loud with gongs and displaying portraits of the deceased. The MOSI bodies are said to be unclaimed, anonymous people with no known relatives. Arnie Geller of Palm Beach, president and CEO of Premier Exhibitions, which is managing the show, told The Palm Beach Post he spent nearly a year and a half vetting the body acquisition process at Dalian Medical University, where the corpses were dissected and prepared. In the end, however, Geller was compelled to accept the Chinese parties' word that the corpses had been acquired legally...."

X-rays, CAT scans and endoscopy reveal new information about Louisville mummy (courier-journal.com) with photo

"The Louisville mummy's full name was Tchaenhotep. Its heart and brain are intact 2,500 to 3,000 years after death, despite the fact that many mummies' vital organs were removed upon burial. Tchaenhotep (pronounced Cha-n-ho-tep) was excavated from an area of Egypt known as the Valley of the Queens, but there is no indication the person was royalty. The mummy sustained leg fractures and a crushed pelvis in Louisville's 1937 flood, when rising floodwaters spilled it out of its coffin, separating the head and torso. A piano ended up on top of the mummy...."

Well-preserved 2,000-year-old mummy found in Palmyran tomb (rian.ru)

"Syrian archaeologists have discovered a sarcophagus with the best-preserved mummy ever in a tower tomb in Palmyra. The two-meter-long conical sarcophagus is made of stone. The name of Hanbal Saadi, who the scientists believe was the owner of the tomb, is engraved upon it. The mummy is 175 centimeters (5 feet 9 inches) long. The discovery was a surprise for the archaeologists...."

The dubious accomplishment of George Gliddon (egypttoday.com)

"One of the most interesting figures in the history of mummy unwrapping is George Gliddon, the American vice-consul to Egypt in 1832. Gliddon was not particularly interested in the mummy business at first. The son of an English merchant, he had spent much of his childhood in Alexandria, where his parents often hosted dinners for famous archeologists including Sir John Gardner Wilkinson (known as the father of British Egyptology) and John Lloyd Stephens, an American writer and explorer of the ancient Mayan civilization. Young George absorbed their knowledge of Ancient Egypt and understood the intricacies of the antiquities trade. As a young diplomat, Gliddon came to the attention of the Viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, who sent him to the United States to gather information on the culture of cotton and buy the relevant machinery. Gliddon particularly liked the institution of slavery in the South. By this time, he had come to suspect that the Ancient Egyptians believed that black people were inferior to white people...."

Ancient Egypt and Ancient Ohio: A comparative exhibit (ohio.com)

"In 1885, a Presbyterian missionary in Egypt, the Rev. John Giffen bought four mummies still in their sarcophagi for the grand sum of $8 each. The mummies had been looted from their tombs near the Egyptian city of Akhmim, on the east bank of the Nile about 290 miles south of Cairo. One mummy went to the Asyut College Museum in Egypt, where it still resides, and the rest returned to the United States with the Rev. John R. Alexander and were distributed among three Presbyterian-founded colleges: Erskine College in Due West, S.C., Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa., and the College of Wooster. Through Oct. 16, the College of Wooster Art Museum Ebert Art Center is presenting Ancient Ohio/Ancient Egypt, an exhibit that highlights artifacts and materials from two cultures that existed contemporaneously on different continents...."

Man who lived with partially mummified mother for a year will be tried (sfgate.com)

"A Fairfield man who allegedly left the partially mummified corpse of his mother on the kitchen floor of his family’s home for more than a year will face elder abuse and involuntary manslaughter charges, a judge ruled. The attorney for Jack Ronald Wilson, 58, had filed a motion to dismiss the charges, saying there was no evidence of criminal conduct on his client’s part. Solano County Superior Court Judge Mike Nail denied the motion Thursday. A trial date is expected to be set Wednesday, said Solano County Deputy District Attorney Terry Ray. Wilson’s attorney, public defender Thomas Hagler, did not return phone calls to his office...."