Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife.SPOOK: Science Tackles the Afterlife MARY ROACH The soul--where it resides in the body and what happens to it upon death--has preoccupied scientists and philosophers for centuries. The author of Stiff, the best-selling book on cadavers, Roach takes on another unusual subject and examines it thoroughly. With both respect and irreverent humor, she chronicles the many dubious attempts to locate the soul, including the vivisection vivisection (vĭv'ĭsĕk`shən), dissection of living animals for experimental purposes. The use of the term in recent years has been expanded to include all experimentation on living animals, rather than just dissection alone. of animals, the weighing of dying bodies, and attempts to X-ray "the life force." Her research for the book took her from India, where claims of reincarnation reincarnation (rē'ĭnkärnā`shən) [Lat.,=taking on flesh again], occupation by the soul of a new body after the death of the former body. are routine, to the halls of Cambridge University Cambridge University, at Cambridge, England, one of the oldest English-language universities in the world. Originating in the early 12th cent. (legend places its origin even earlier than that of Oxford Univ. and its odd collection of papers on ectoplasm ectoplasm an old-fashioned term which referred to a peripheral band of gel-like cytoplasm, free of organelles, found in free and motile cells. and seances, to the University of Arizona (body, education) University of Arizona - The University was founded in 1885 as a Land Grant institution with a three-fold mission of teaching, research and public service. , where scientists are checking the stories of mediums who claim to contact spirits. Though Roach maintains a skeptical stance, she leaves the question of an afterlife for others to answer. W.W. Norton and Co., 2005, 288 p., hardcover, b&w photos, $24.95. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion