How did Pablo Neruda really die? Forensic science weighs in.

Almost 40 years ago , Chilean poet Pablo Neruda died . Whether the Nobel prizewinner ’s death was from prostate gland cancer ( the official diagnosing ) or intoxication has been a longstanding mystery . But earlier this week , Neruda ’s body was removed from its tomb , set up a forensic investigating that could build once and for all how the artist really meet his last .

Writing for Nature News , Michele Catanzaro has put together a man that explain the contestation behind Neruda ’s last ; why his body has been disinter ; the pertinent who s , when siemens , and where atomic number 16 of the forensic investigation ; and – perhaps most importantly – whether said investigation can really be conclusive at all :

simulated negatives are possible , says Barry Logan , United States President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences , who is not involved in the investigation . “ If experts find toxics that should not be there , then the result will be definitive , ” he says . But some plant poisons are not detectable even in optimal forensic conditions , and traces of cyanide may be artefacts of putrefaction , Logan says . “ Finally , ” he says , “ the analysis may say whether a substance is present or not , but quantitative appraisal are unmanageable in these conditions . ” A poisoning that consist of an overdose of a legal medication , such as morphine , would be difficult to detect .

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In 2011 , Salvador Allende , Chile ’s democratically elect president - chosen who was deposed by a military junta in 1973 , wasdisinterredto verify that he ’d fatally shot himself . ( The determination — yes — is still disputed . ) The late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávezordered in 2010 that the tombof his idol , Simón Bolívar , be opened to prove his theory that the liberator died of toxic condition , not tuberculosis . ( The theory stay unproved . )

And in 2008 , a Spanish judge authorized theunearthing of a aggregative gravein the southern town of Alfácar to see whether Federico García Lorca , the poet and dramatist who was assassinated by fascist in 1936 , at the start of the Civil War , was inhume there . ( The results were inconclusive . )

It sounds like nobody is look any solvent for at least a few more months . We ’re not holding our hint , but it ’d be dainty to see one of these investigations adjudicate more questions than it raise .

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