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From the time we see Bambi’s mom bite the dust, we all know what death
is. At least, we think we do. But the simple definition of death—that the body
stops working—doesn’t take into account how weird our bodies actually are.

“We really know nothing about what happens when you die,” says Peter Noble, a former professor at the University of Alabama. Noble knows firsthand that surprises await scientists studying the end of life: he helped discover that