Insects colonise a cadaver in successive waves, and each has its own unique life cycle. They can therefore provide information that is useful for estimating time of death, and for learning about the circumstances of death. This has led to the emerging field of forensic entomology. There have been several court cases where forensic entomology has really stood up and provided important pieces of the puzzle,” says Bucheli. “Bacteria might provide additional information and could become another tool to refine [time of death] estimates. I hope that in about 5 years we can start using bacterial data in trials.” Every species that visits a cadaver has a unique repertoire of gut microbes, and different types of soil are likely to harbour distinct bacterial communities, the composition of which is probably determined by factors such as temperature, moisture, and the soil type and texture. During the early stages of decomposition, the cadaveric ecosystem consists mostly of the bacteria that live in and on the human body. Our bodies host huge numbers of bacteria, with every one of its surfaces and corners providing a habitat for a specialised microbial community. By far the largest of these communities resides in the gut, which is home to trillions of bacteria of hundreds or perhaps thousands of different species.

Thus, every dead body is likely have a unique microbiological signature, and this signature may change with time according to the exacting conditions of the death scene. A better understanding of the composition of these bacterial communities, the relationships between them, and how they influence each other as decomposition proceeds, could one day help forensics teams learn more about where, when and how a person died. For others, the end is less dignified. A murderer might bury his victim in a shallow grave, or leave their body at the scene of the crime, exposed to the elements. When the body is eventually discovered, the first thing that the police detectives and forensics experts working on the case will try to establish is when death occurred. Time of death is a crucial piece of information in any murder investigation, but the many factors influencing the decomposition process can make it extremely difficult to estimate. Decomposition notebooks are environment-friendly as they are made from recycled waste materials, while not all composition notebooks are made from recycled materials. AgeIn practice, though, using insects to estimate time of death is fraught with difficulties. Time of death estimates based on the age of blowfly maggots found on a body are based on the assumption that flies colonised the cadaver right after death, but this is not always the case – burial can exclude insects altogether, for example, and extreme temperatures inhibit their growth or prevent it altogether. Flies will arrive at a cadaver almost immediately,” says Bucheli. “We’ll put a body out and three seconds later there’ll be flies laying eggs in the nose.” Ultimately, though, decomposition is beneficial for the ecosystem – the microbial biomass within the cadaver decomposition island is greater than in other nearby areas; nematode worms also become more abundant, and plant life more diverse. Further research into how decomposing bodies alter the ecology of their surroundings may provide a new way of finding murder victims whose bodies have been buried in shallow graves. Necrophorus beetles carry mites on their bodies ( Poecilochirus) which feed on fly eggs. If the mites arrive before the eggs hatch, the carcass can be dominated by the beetles.)

Lindgren and Bucheli found a scorpionfly, Panorpa nuptialis, feeding on brain fluids through an autopsy incision. Photograph: Natalie Lindgren Composition notebooks are empty notebooks commonly used by students for writing, while decomposition notebooks are a new variety of composition notebooks having fun prints and are made of recycled paper. Cover

Students can use both these types of notebooks to take down notes, do their homework, make short notes, etc.