Thank you, American Chemical Society, for bringing Halloween back to the brutally, unavoidably real world of death science.

This week Reactions is checking out some scary slasher science and what happens when you're about to die. Your body chemistry does a lot of crazy stuff when you're in the face of danger. This one goes out to all of our slasher flick fans out there. We love horror films here at Reactions, so in honor of all of those chased by monsters, villains, and zombies out there, we decided to take a closer look at what happens chemically in your brain and body right before you die. After you watch the video, do us a huge favor and post your favorite slasher flick down in the comments. Happy Halloween!

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Writer & Producer:
Kirk Zamieroski

Executive Producer: 
Adam Dylewski

Scientific consultants:
Abby Marsh, Ph.D.
Darcy Gentleman, Ph.D.
Sophia Cai

Sources:
Amygdala - http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/a/a_04/a_04_cr/a_04_cr_peu/a_04_cr_peu.html

Fear in the brain - 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8136063

Fight or Flight - http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cells/fight_flight/

Screams in the Brain - 
http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(15)00737-X

On Pain - 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10967/

Near Death Brain-surge - 
http://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/brain-metrics/could_a_final_surge_in

End of life electrical surges - 
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/44/E4123.full

What Happens When You're About to Die?

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It's a spooky question, but it doesn't have to be: what happens to your body when you die? Even after you depart, there's a lot of chemistry that still goes on inside you. 

We teamed up with mortician and author Caitlin Doughty (@thegooddeath) to demystify death and talk about what happens postmortem. 

Check out Caitlin's awesome new book "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" here: http://bit.ly/Ootgdacs
Subscribe to her channel here: http://www.youtube.com/OrderoftheGoodDeath
And be sure to read her blog: http://bit.ly/1srxpOA
She's also on Twitter @thegooddeath

You can find US in all of these places: 
Subscribe! http://bit.ly/ACSReactions
Facebook! http://facebook.com/ACSReactions
Twitter! http://twitter.com/ACSReactions

Special thanks to Raychelle Burks, Ph.D. (@drrubidium) for her help with this episode. Leave your comments and chemistry questions in the comments!

What Happens to Your Body When You Die?

Fun fact: In the time it took you to watch these two videos, [about 1,000 people died worldwide](http://www.ecology.com/birth-death-rates/). Death lurks!

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The Chemistry of Death and Dying

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The Chemistry of Death and Dying

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