Susan Potter donated her body to science. It was frozen, sawed into four blocks, sliced 27,000 times, and photographed after each cut. The result: a virtual cadaver that will speak to medical students from the grave. National Geographic has been documenting Potter’s journey for 16 years.

苏珊·波特把自己的遗体捐给了科学。它被冷冻、锯成四块、切成27，000片，并在每次切割后进行拍照。其结果是：一具虚拟的尸体将在坟墓里与学医的学生进行对话。“国家地理”对波特的旅程进行了16年的记录。

Potter was 72 years old when she met Spitzer at the University of Colorado and convinced him she wanted to donate her body and become a “visible human.” It’s unusual, if not unheard of, for a body donor to interact with the intended recipient while still alive.

波特72岁时，遇到了科罗拉多大学的斯皮策，并对他说她想捐出自己的遗体，以成为“数字化人”。这不是千古奇闻，也是非同寻常，一个遗体捐献者在活着的时候竟然与预定的接受者展开互动。

When Potter insisted that Spitzer show her around the laboratory where her body would be frozen, ground into hair-thin slices, then photographed, he hesitated. “At first I was startled,” he said. “Then I thought, Why not?”

当波特坚持让斯皮策带她参观实验室时，（她的遗体将在这里会被冷冻、磨成发丝般的薄片、然后拍照）他犹豫了。他说，“一开始我很吃惊，然后我想，为什么不呢？”

Because surgery and disease had scarred Potter’s body, Spitzer initially was reluctant to accept her offer. He was focused on the normal human body, until he realized that the diseased body is what doctors routinely deal with, thereby giving her donation special value.

由于手术和疾病给波特的身体留下了伤疤，斯皮策起初不愿接受她的提议。他关注的是正常的人体，直到他意识到患病的身体是医生通常要处理的，因此也将赋予她捐赠的特殊价值。

When Potter signed on to Spitzer’s project, she thought she would die within a year. Instead, she lived for 15 and found purpose in speaking to medical students. In particular, she mentored a group from first year through graduation.

当波特签约参加斯皮策的项目时，她以为自己会在一年内死去。相反，她又活了15岁，并找到了与医科学生交谈的目的。尤其是她还指导了一组学生，从一年级到毕业。

“It’s tough getting to know someone and having to deal with them after death,” Spitzer said years before Potter died, on February 16, 2015. Will you regret the personal contact? he was asked. “I’ll never regret it as long as I think about it logically,” he said.

2015年2月16日波特去世，之前的几年斯皮策曾经说过：“了解一个人并在死后与其打交道是很困难的。”你会后悔这样的私人往来吗？有人问他。他说：“只要我从逻辑上考虑，我就不会后悔。”

Potter’s medical history presented challenges for the sectioning part of the process. She had a titanium prosthesis from a hip replacement. Concern that the metal could damage the cutting blade meant that the prosthesis had to be removed. The screws that had been used to stabilize her cervical spine weren’t a problem, however.

波特的病史给这一过程的切割部分带来了挑战。她做过人工钛材髋关节的置换手术。因担心金属可能会损坏刀片，这就意味着假肢必须移除。然而，用来稳定她颈椎的螺钉并不是问题。

The terminology of the lab where the cadaver was prepared is unavoidably brutal. The body is said to be “cut,” but, Spitzer explains, technically speaking, the frozen tissue is milled—ground away—in 63-micron increments. First the body is quartered to fit the automated milling machine.

处理遗体的实验室之术语都是不可避免的残酷。据说遗体是被“切割”的，但斯皮策解释说，从技术上讲，冷冻的组织是以63微米的增量被磨碎的。首先，遗体要分成四份，以适合自动的铣床。

Susan Potter signed on to be an immortal corpse, one that could be summoned from cyberspace anywhere, anytime. Her milling and imaging are just the beginning. Long after her death, the process of bringing her to life with 3D imaging and narration in her own voice will be a work in progress.

苏珊·波特签约成为一具不朽的尸体，这具尸体可以随时随地从网络空间召唤出来。她的碾磨和成像只是个开始。在她去世很久之后，通过3D成像使她复活，并用她自己的声音进行叙述。

Susan Potter knew in exquisite and grisly detail what was going to happen to her body after death.

苏珊·波特知晓死后遗体将发生的细腻而恐怖的细节。

For the last 15 years of her life, Potter carried a card with these words: “It is my wish to have my body used for purposes similar to those used in the Visible Human Project, namely that photographic images might be used on the Internet for medical education … In the event of my death … page Dr. Victor M. Spitzer, Ph.D. … There is a 4-hour window for the remains to be received.”

在波特生命的最后15年里，她带着一张卡片，上面写着：“我希望我的身体用于类似于数字化人类项目的用途，即摄影图像可以在互联网上用于医学教育…。“如果我死了，请呼叫维克多·M·斯皮策博士，把我的遗体在四小时内交到4号冷冻窗口。”

Potter knew because she visited the room where her body would be taken, saw the machinery that would grind her tissue away one paper-thin section at a time for imaging, and heard Spitzer, the director of the Center for Human Simulation at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, explain the process more than a decade before she died. Spitzer didn’t volunteer to show her the room; Potter demanded it.

波特之所以知道，是因为她参观了她的遗体将被取走的房间，她也看到了把她的组织磨成薄如纸张并一次成像的机器，并听到科罗拉多大学安舒茨医学院人类模拟中心主任斯皮策在她去世前十多年里解释了这个过程。斯皮策不情愿带她参观这个房间，是波特要求的。

I want to see the meat locker, she told him, meaning Room NG 004 in Fitzsimons, a former Army hospital on the grounds of the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine, near Denver. “I will only donate my body after a tour from top to bottom.”

她对他说，我想看看肉柜，意思是在菲茨西蒙斯(Fitzsimons)的NG 004房间，这是一家位于丹佛附近科罗拉多大学医学院 (University of Colola School of Medicine)的前陆军医院。“我只有从上到下看个透，才会捐出我的遗体。”

“This story is about death,” Vic Spitzer told me in March 2004, when I first met him to discuss his collaboration with Potter. “But in this case we’re talking about the future dead.” In fact, it’s really a story about a relationship between two living people: a scientist with a vision to create a boundary-stretching, 21st-century version of Gray’s Anatomy and a woman who volunteered for a project that would be realized only when she died. You could say that for the last 15 years of her life, Susan Potter lived for Vic Spitzer.

2004年3月，维克·斯皮策(Vic Spitzer)告诉我，“这个故事是关于死亡的，”，那是我第一次见到他，讨论他与波特的合作。“但这次我们谈论的是未来的死亡。”事实上，这是一个关于两个活人之间真实的故事：一个有远见的科学家创造了一个跨越21世纪的格雷解剖的版本，还有一个女人自愿参加一个只有在她死后才能实现的项目。也可以说，在她生命的最后15年里，苏珊·波特是为维克·斯皮策而活的。

“I want to help young people become better doctors,” she said in this 2002 video. But she didn’t initially anticipate that the project would also expose her to a global audience.

  “我想帮助年轻人成为更好的医生，”她在2002年的视频中说。但她最初并没有预料到这个项目也会让她接触到全球观众。

（未完待续）