• Question: what happens when we dye

    Asked by mlricketts to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 21 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Dye? The colour of whatever you are dying changes.

      Die? The great question that has intrigued humanity throughout the ages, and which noone will ever know the answer to because noone can come back to give us some data.

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      hi you know what i don’t know! i like to believe that our consciousness goes on – but perhaps that because i am scared of dying?? I don’t have any strong religious beliefs, so i’m not too sure about heavan and hell. I guess as a scientist you would look for evidence, but that is a little difficult in this case!

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi Mlricketts

      I’m guessing you mean when we ‘die’? Our atoms are returned to the universe where they will continue to exist for ever, many of them being incorporated into other people, animals and plants. I like that idea, it gives you a kind of immortality.

    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi mlricketts,
      From a biological point of view, basically speaking all the components of our body break down and get redistributed back into the environment – some more quickly than others (thats why skeletons last much longer than flesh!)
      From a spiritual point of view, lots of religions believe we (or our souls) move on to somewhere else, some people call this heaven. Depending on your point of view, you either believe this or you don’t!

      Eoin

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      That’s an excellent question!

      Death is a process. When we die, it’s not the case that all of the billions of cells in your body die simultaneously, rather that something has occurred (such as a heart attack) that means the body can no longer sustain the high oxygen requirement of the brain. Death is officially defined by the medical profession as the point at which in this procees you can no longer revive the person – and this point is constantly changing as we find better ways of dealing with life threatening emergencies such as heart attacks and strokes.

      I guess your question might also be directed at a more theological answer. I don’t believe there is an afterlife as I simply see no evidence for this – but that is a very conentious issue indeed

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