SHE is one of the UK’s leading forensic scientists whose study of the human bones has led to the conviction of international war criminals, paedophiles and murderers.
But now Sue Black, director of the University of Dundee Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification, has revealed that she plans to leave her own skeleton to help future scientists after her death, helping them learn how to unlock the secrets held within the human frame – and so she can “go on teaching forever”.
Speaking on the Radio 4 series We Need to Talk About Death – presented by veteran broadcaster Joan Bakewell – last week. she confirmed that she planned to ensure that her body was useful in every way possible after she died. She said she has made plans for her organs, if she dies young enough for them to be useful, or to donate her whole body – as well as her skeleton – if she lives to a ripe old age.
Leading Scottish writers including Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Denise Mina have called on the Scottish government to halt potentially “devastating” cuts to arts and literature for “the good of everyone in Scotland”.
Funding for arts and culture is to be decided in a settlement between Creative Scotland and the Scottish Government later this month, and it is expected that significantly less funding and fewer opportunities will be available to develop arts and culture in Scotland.
Ahead of the budget, which will be announced on 14th December, writers have appealed to the government to increase funding to arts and literature to help produce and support writers who will encourage diversity, inclusion and literacy, as well as boost Scotland’s economy.
While the letter concedes there are “of course difficult budget decisions to make in times of austerity”, the authors urge the government to consider that the cost of supporting literature “only amounts to a tiny fraction of the overall money the government will spend”.
“When it comes to the arts and literature, for a modest investment from the government our work generates enormous financial and cultural dividends”, the letter said.
It continued: “Without support from the government, Scotland will surely damage one of its prize assets: its world-renowned literary heritage. What an irony we could be facing: a country which trumpets its First Minister’s Reading Challenge on the one hand, but which cuts funding to new writers on the other.”
