Rot Box - a squelchingly fascinating look at rot @bbcrotbox

Rot Box is a fascinating project that promises to reveal a hidden world that every living thing on Earth owes its existence to - the world of decay. If you enjoyed the squelchingly gruesome scenes of Channel 4's decomposing elephant in 'The Elephant: Life after Death" then this is sure to get your skin tingling.

To fulfil this morbid proposition Edinburgh Zoo has done a David Blaine with the family kitchen. Between 6th August and 25th September this kitchen, along with a garden and all the leftovers from a typical family barbeque will be sealed in a glass box. Untouched it will be watched by 12 timelapse cameras who will follow the events as maggots, moulds, bacteria, flies and fungus transform the contents beyond all recognition. If you're visiting  the zoo then you too can witness first hand the gut-bursting scene of a chicken as it slowly becomes goo. It's a cross between a Damien Hirst installation and a scene from a Tim Burton movie - fun for all the family.

Executive producer Marcus Herbert describes the scene "It's only the first week but things are looking pretty gross already. There's lots of food out - a fruit bowl, chicken legs, a suckling pig on the barbeque, lots of wine lying around. There's also two dead mice and a rat – we’ll be seeing how different conditions affect the way they decay. After a few weeks we expect to have about 50,000 flies in there." 

This rotting mess will be used as the slimey foundation on which entomologist, and One show regular, George McGavin, will present a BBC4 programme later in the year - After Life: The Science of Decay. As well as being about the eight weeks of decay in the rot box, it'll also be about the wider world of decay; trying to understand the science behind this process which is so vital to life on earth.  

Follow the latest news from the RotBox on the After Life website.

George McGavin with the Rot Box (Photo: BBC)

The rotting chicken's first week in the Rot Box