Dead Man Walking. Er... rotting. Doing science, at least.

I now know what I want to do with my body after I die. Forget embalming, that's just gross. Forget cremation. Forget having my remains made into diamonds. I want to rot in the Body Farm!

That's right, you can donate your body to forensic science to get around having to do any of that traditional funeral crap or encouraging the use of noxious chemical preservation. The Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee will let you rot (in a shallow grave, in the trunk of a car, at the bottom of a pond, etc.) naturally and chemical-free, and measure the stages of decomposition. This furthers forensic science and helps put murderers behind bars.

If forensics really turns you on, you need to add these fascinating, factual, and disgusting volumes to your library:

Death's Acre by Dr. Bill Bass (the Farm's founder) and Jon Jefferson

Dead Men Do Tell Tales by William R. Maples and Michael Browning

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach