Poking around in corpses in search of bugs is not everybody's cup of tea. But Gail Anderson, a professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and one of only a dozen certified forensic entomologists in North America, does it for a living. She even finds it fun. Her job is to discover how and when somebody died by looking at the insects on their body. She is also an expert in murder victims that end up in water. Nicola Jones asks her about life and death at the deep end, and finds out why she's been depositing dead pigs across the Canadian countryside.

What was it like when you saw your first dead body?

Not as unpleasant as you would expect. It smells, but it's a smell you get used to very quickly. It's like walking into a room where you can smell gas-after a few minutes ...