Thread: bodyworlds--looks interesting..

Gunther von Hagens is the inventor of the plastination technique and creator of the BODY WORLDS and BODY WORLDS 2 exhibitions. In 1965, he began his medical studies at the University of Jena. He spent two years as a political prisoner in East Germany after having distributed leaflets protesting against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops and an unsuccessful attempt at escaping from East Germany. In 1970 the West German government bought his freedom for US$20,000, enabling him to finalize his medical studies at the University of Lübeck in 1973. In 1974, he received his license to practice medicine before moving to the University of Heidelberg, where he finalized his doctoral thesis as a resident in the Department of Anesthetics and Emergency Medicine in 1975. In 1976 he started an eighteen-year career as a resident and lecturer in the Institute of Pathology and the Institute of Anatomy at the Heidelberg University.

In 1977, at the department of Anatomy of Heidelberg University, he invented plastination as a groundbreaking technology for preserving anatomical specimens with reactive polymers. The process was patented between 1978 and 1982. Also, in 1978, Gunther von Hagens started his own company, BIODUR Products, which has since marketed special polymers and equipment for plastination which are currently exported to 400 institutions in 40 different countries worldwide. Gunther von Hagens founded the Heidelberg-based Institute for Plastination in 1993, with the aim to offer plastinated specimens for educational use and for the BODY WORLDS exhibitions, which premiered in Japan in 1995. He finalized his engagements at Heidelberg University in 1995 and consequently accepted a visiting professorship at Dalian Medical University in China, in 1996. In the same year, he also became the director of the plastination research center at the State Medical Academy in Bishkek/Kyrgyzstan. He has since been active at both locations and in 2001 additionally founded a private company (the "Von Hagens Dalian Plastination Ltd.") in Dalian, China, which currently employs 200 people.
In 2004, Dr. von Hagens began a visiting professorship at the New York University College of Dentistry. He is currently in the process of designing the first anatomy curriculum in the United States, which will use plastinated specimens in lieu of dissection.

I went to it when it was in LA, it's very interesting, you really get a unique view of the human body much more than a book or Anatomy lab can offer.

cool, i cant wait to see it..

Do they have taste tests, take home samples?