You know when you were a kid and your friends were all, "Hey, go into that abandoned house, you big baby. What are you so afraid of?" A boy in Dayton, Ohio is proving we were right for chickening out after finding a five-year-old mummified body hanging in a closet.

Last week, a construction contractor discovered the mummified body of Pia Farrenkopf in the backseat of Farrenkopf's Jeep, which was parked in her garage. Strange as that is, the story gets weirder: Farrenkopf, who police say died sometime in 2008, registered for and voted in the 2010 elections.

The mummified remains of a Chicana author, activist, and teacher were found inside her Santa Fe, New Mexico home last week. Authorities and family members believe the body of Barbara Salinas-Norman may have been inside the home for over a year.

A group of forensic anthropologists have completed a meticulous analysis of a set of real human anatomy displays from 19C Italy. Using CT scans and other chemical analysis, the group determined that, some 200 years ago, anatomist Giovan Battista Rini "petrified" the corpses with a mercury and other heavy metals. He injected some tinctures and used others as baths. The eyes are fake. Basically, Rini was modern medicine's first "Body Worlds" guy.

Historian and "well-respected specialist in cemeteries" Anatoly Moskvin stands accused of robbing at dozens of graves in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod. His goal, according to Russian authorities: "Decorat[ing] his home with 29 mummified female bodies… dressed as life-sized dolls."

Reality TV has certainly dabbled in ancient embalming practices before — Paula Abdul immediately springs to mind — but never, to my knowledge, has it been taken quite to these extremes. A terminally ill man with a longheld fascination for Egyptian burial rites donated his body to a documentary series about mummification on Britain's Channel 4.

Brain friends! Comet comparisons! DNA crime laws! Energy drink deceptions! Monster phalanges! Space sex! It's your Monday Science Watch, where we watch science—friendlessly, endlessly, relentlessly!

Looks like Egypt's ancient artifacts will survive the uprising relatively unscathed: Not only are civilians detaining would-be looters, but 288 items stolen from a storage site were "left in the street" after antiquities chief Zahi Hawass asked for their return.

Looters who broke into Cairo's Egyptian Museum ripped the heads off two mummies before they were caught. Finally, late-night comics have an angle on the Egyptian protests for their monologues!

A police officer ticketed an illegally parked car and peeked inside. There sat a mummified female human. Apparently the owner's friend died while sitting there and the owner "continued to dress the body and drive around with it."

We love any news story that includes "mummified skeletal remains." So this story about Tokyo's oldest man is a real treat. Turns out that he's been dead for 30 years, during which time he became a mummy.