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A blue mineral that grows on buried bodies and confuses archaeologists (2016)

Just mix together a dead person, some iron, and lots of water.

Phosphate is present in the hard bits of bones and teeth (as part of the mineral hydroxylapatite), helps hold together strands of DNA and RNA, and is used by cells to store and move energy around as well as to organize their many protein-driven activities. The skin of Ötzi the Iceman, a 5,000-year-old mummy discovered in the Ötztaler Alps between Austria and Italy after the glacier it was encased in partly melted away, is dotted with blue spots marking where it had been in close contact with iron-bearing rocks. Rodney Burton/CC BY-SA 2.0 After discovering a mass grave of soldiers who perished during a clash between the Austrian and Prussian armies in the spring of 1757 near what is now the city of Liberec in the Czech Republic (as part of the Seven Years’ War), researchers had trouble analyzing DNA extracted from the skeletons.

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