Medicine is not about routine bureaucracy. Medicine is an art. And some physicians extended the creative part of it beyond what is normally expected. Because medicine is more than scribbling a receipt. Medicine is about diagnosing problems and solving them. And when no treatment is to be found, medicine is about dealing with human suffering.…… Continue reading When flesh becomes plastic
Tag: book review
Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads
Natural history museums got too crazy about multimedia – why can’t the public appreciate the fine manual skills necessary to preserve an organism? A breathless zoo garden, a display of still life – frozen in time – all beautiful words for what are actually dead corpses. How come humans developed the interest for preserving and…… Continue reading Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads
Mummies and the dream of immortality
Serendipity got me hooked on this exquisite album on mummies, showcasing the old-aged human desire for immortality. Having just visited the Body Worlds exhibition in Ludwigsburg, I was attuned to a book that describes not only the history of mummies, but also the present mummification techniques, like plastination and cryonics. The book is divided in…… Continue reading Mummies and the dream of immortality
Power, Sex, Suicide
Mitochondria are a wonderful present from your mother – these tiny organelles are inherited from the ova only, carrying their own DNA and providing you with the energy it takes to breathe, to keep your internal environment constant and to read this blog post at the same time! Authored by the British biochemist Nick Lane,…… Continue reading Power, Sex, Suicide