One Australian is born every 1.45 minutes; one dies every 3.25 minutes. We’re good at talking about the beginnings of life, but pretty awkward when it comes to facing the end.
While modern society embraces and celebrates new life and lifetime milestones, the topic of death has become taboo. In this first of the Australian Academy of Science’s new national public event series, ‘The science of life & death’, we’ll look at death from three fascinating angles: from preventing death and identifying the exact moment of death, to the science and logistics of mass death events, and why scientists are burying bodies in the Blue Mountains.
Join a trio of seasoned death experts – Professors Roger Byard, Shari Forbes and David Caldicott, and science broadcaster Bernie Hobbs – for a lively discussion on a deathly topic.
DEATH in Hobart is the first of five events in the Academy’s national ‘Science of life & death’ series, designed to educate, entertain and push us to the edge of our comfort levels, starting a national conversation about life, death and beyond.
This Inspiring Australia initiative is supported by the Australian Government.
Associate Professor David Caldicott is an Emergency Consultant at the Emergency Department of the Calvary Hospital in Canberra and a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine at the Australian National University.
He is a spokesperson for the Australian Science Media Centre on the issues of illicit drug use and the medical response to terrorism and disasters. He has acted as an independent advisor to politicians from all parties, most recently on the practicalities and implications of creating a medical cannabis system for Australia.
Professor Roger Byard AO PSM is the Professor of Pathology at The University of Adelaide and a Senior Forensic Pathologist at Forensic Science SA. He has been extensively involved with forensic research for a number of years and has written over 650 papers and five text books. He worked on body identifications after the Bali bombings and the South-East Asian tsunami and for this work was awarded the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal and the Australian Federal Police Operations Medal.
Professor Shari Forbes is a Professor and ARC Future Fellow in the Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Technology Sydney. She is also the Director of the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER), the first facility in Australia that allows people to donate their bodies to science for the purposes of studying the process of decomposition (colloquially referred to as a body farm). Prof. Forbes is an invited member of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences and a member of the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society (ANZFSS). She is regularly consulted on forensic casework and assists police to search for and locate human remains using cadaver dogs and geophysical equipment.
View the rest of the Science of life and death series
One Australian is born every 1.45 minutes; one dies every 3.25 minutes. We’re good at talking about the beginnings of life, but pretty awkward when it comes to facing the end.
While modern society embraces and celebrates new life and lifetime milestones, the topic of death has become taboo. In this first of the Australian Academy of Science’s new national public event series, ‘The science of life & death’, we’ll look at death from three fascinating angles: from preventing death and identifying the exact moment of death, to the science and logistics of mass death events, and why scientists are burying bodies in the Blue Mountains.
Join a trio of seasoned death experts – Professors Roger Byard, Shari Forbes and David Caldicott, and science broadcaster Bernie Hobbs – for a lively discussion on a deathly topic.
DEATH in Hobart is the first of five events in the Academy’s national ‘Science of life & death’ series, designed to educate, entertain and push us to the edge of our comfort levels, starting a national conversation about life, death and beyond.
This Inspiring Australia initiative is supported by the Australian Government.
Associate Professor David Caldicott is an Emergency Consultant at the Emergency Department of the Calvary Hospital in Canberra and a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine at the Australian National University.
He is a spokesperson for the Australian Science Media Centre on the issues of illicit drug use and the medical response to terrorism and disasters. He has acted as an independent advisor to politicians from all parties, most recently on the practicalities and implications of creating a medical cannabis system for Australia.
Professor Roger Byard AO PSM is the Professor of Pathology at The University of Adelaide and a Senior Forensic Pathologist at Forensic Science SA. He has been extensively involved with forensic research for a number of years and has written over 650 papers and five text books. He worked on body identifications after the Bali bombings and the South-East Asian tsunami and for this work was awarded the Humanitarian Overseas Service Medal and the Australian Federal Police Operations Medal.
Professor Shari Forbes is a Professor and ARC Future Fellow in the Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Technology Sydney. She is also the Director of the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER), the first facility in Australia that allows people to donate their bodies to science for the purposes of studying the process of decomposition (colloquially referred to as a body farm). Prof. Forbes is an invited member of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences and a member of the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society (ANZFSS). She is regularly consulted on forensic casework and assists police to search for and locate human remains using cadaver dogs and geophysical equipment.
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