Carson-Newman College is proposing a new environmental forensics program. Students would measure the effects of both animal and human decay on the air quality, the water supply and surrounding soil.
There are several labs, like UT's famous Body Farm that study actual bodies, but right now there is no facility to show what happens where a body breaks down.
The prospect of an environmental study has drawn the endorsement of Dr. Bill Bass, who founded the Body Farm, and other forensic experts.
Pending a successful study, Carson-Newman hopes to offer the Master's of Science program by the summer of 2014. It would be the college's first graduate degree in science.