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 Virtual autopsies paint remarkably informative pictures of a body's post-mortem condition. Watch Dr. Anders Persson and his team get under the virtual skin of a victim in order to uncover more information about his death.

Virtual autopsies give coroners incredibly detailed and telling images of victims’ bodies.

Scanning the Dead

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<div class="rich-text"><p>
	Virtual autopsies paint remarkably informative pictures of a body's post-mortem condition. Watch Dr. Anders Persson and his team get under the virtual skin of a victim in order to uncover more information about his death.</p>
</div>

Virtual autopsies give coroners incredibly detailed and telling images of victims' bodies.

<div class="rich-text">Virtual autopsies give coroners incredibly detailed and telling images of victims' bodies.</div>

Tech & Engineering

<div class="rich-text"><h3>
 Forensics on Trial
</h3>
<p>
 PBS Airdate: October 17, 2012
</p>
<p>
<em>
  NARRATOR:
 </em>
 The corpse inside this body bag may be the victim of a crime. It's what police suspect but have no way to prove.
</p>
<p>
 That's the job of Dr. Anders Persson and his team. They are about to perform an autopsy. But this is no ordinary cut-open-the-cadaver job. In Sweden's Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization, this man is about to be sliced up in a virtual autopsy.
</p>
<p>
 It begins inside this C.T. scanner. It's like an x-ray on steroids. Regular x-rays scan just the outline of bones, but C.T. scans use a rotating x-ray.
</p>
<p>
 It takes 12 images per second, creating cross-sectional slices of bone, thinner than a dime. These image slices are stacked side by side, forming a stunning picture of a body's skeleton.
</p>
<p>
 Dr. Persson's team also scans the body through an M.R.I. to search for evidence of damage to organs. M.R.I.s create a map of the body's tissue, slice by slice, using powerful magnets and pulsing radio waves.
</p>
<p>
 The victim is never removed from the body bag. With the click of a mouse, the covering can be made invisible to get a virtual peek inside.
</p>
</div>

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