Database for the Dead

With 18,000 still missing after China's quake, Beijing is organizing a massive campaign to log corpses and establish a DNA database that will help survivors learn the fate of disappeared relatives.

The work holds none of the glitz of America's "CSI" television series, which portrays forensics as a glamorous job. In Yingxiu, near the epicenter, DNA collectors wear gas masks and protective gear in order to prevent contamination from the bodies. They use basic tools, including what look like rusty wire-cutters, to pry away rubble. Nearby, bulldozers root through debris, and damaged buildings are blasted with dynamite to reveal the dead trapped underneath. It's a postapocalyptic scene, and a heartbreaking one: on a recent shift, three CSI police recovered a woman from the ruins of a shop. They sprayed disinfectant on her decomposing body, searched for documents that would identify her and removed a necklace that family members might recognize. Then they started on the task of taking tissue samples from her ribs, fingers and teeth.

Experts say it will take much additional manpower and lab supplies to get the database up and running in the months to come.