How fast does death move? No, it’s not a riddle, but an actual honest-to-goodness question examined by researchers at Stanford University. For the first time ever, scientists have been able to observe the speed at which death spreads across a cell once the self-destruct so-called “trigger wave” has been initiated. Their conclusion? Death moves at around 30 micrometers per minute. “Trigger waves are just now being appreciated as a recurring theme in cell regulation,” James Ferrell, a professor of Chemical and Systems Biology and of Biochemistry at Stanford University, told Digital Trends.