Posted on 11/2/2012

Body World comes to Cape Town

One of the freakiest things I have ever seen was sent to me in the form of a little link in aSkypeconversation and despite initial shock at the concept, I am actually quite excited about this.Body World is in Cape Town! This is a world famous exhibition of preserved (yes, implying dead) bodies and now you too can go and learnsomething! For those of you who don't know much about this, here's a bit of an introduction.

So there's this chap calledGunther von Hagens. He reminds me a bit of a new ageInspectorgadget crossed with Indiana Jones. Anyway, so this very cleverscientist perfected a really awesome way of preserving the humanbody. Who knows,perhaps he's partEgyptianand felt the need to embalm, either way he's been mastering this 'preservation process' for the last three decades and he calls it

Plastination

So exactly what is this?Well, it's a technique or process used inanatomyto preserve bodies or body parts (thanks Wiki) and basically water is replaced by plastic and the body is preserved. (there's a few more processes involved but basically, preservation is the point). It's been a technique used for a while to preserve smaller specimens. It's actually only since the 90s that entire bodies are preserved with this method. And some of thesepreservations are on display at the Waterfront .... so if you are in the mood for an educational treat, with just the right mix of 'scary but true', you need to head on down there! Warning though.. it's not for the faint hearted - which in itself is a pun, if you think about what it is that olvon Hagens does for a living!