Inventor of Plastination - Gunther von Hagens


Gunther von Hagens' life reads like an archetypal scientist's resume—distinguished by early precocity, scholarship, discovery, experimentation, and invention. It is also the profile of a man shaped by extraordinary events, and marked by defiance and daring.

Inventor of Plastination - Gunther von Hagens
Inventor of Plastination - Gunther von Hagens


Von Hagens' two year imprisonment by East German authorities for political reasons, his release after a $20,000 payment by the West German government, his pioneering invention that halts decomposition of the body after death and preserves it for didactic eternity, his collaboration with donors including his best friend, who willed and entrusted their bodies to him for dissection and public display, and his role as a teacher carrying on the tradition of Renaissance anatomists, make his a remarkable life in science.

Anatomist, inventor of Plastination, and creator of BODY WORLDS—The Original Exhibitions of Real Human Bodies—von Hagens (christened Gunther Gerhard Liebchen) was born in 1945, in Alt-Skalden, Posen, Poland—then part of Germany. To escape the imminent and eventual Russian occupation of their homeland, his parents placed the five-day-old infant in a laundry basket and began a six-month trek west by horse wagon. The family lived briefly in Berlin and its vicinity, before finally settling in Greiz, a small town where von Hagens remained until the age of 19.

As a child, he was diagnosed with a rare bleeding disorder that restricted his activities and required long bouts of hospitalization that he says, fostered in him a sense of alienation and nonconformity. At age 6, von Hagens nearly died and was in intensive care for many months. His daily encounters there with doctors and nurses left an indelible impression on him, and ignited in him a desire to become a physician. He also showed an interest in science from an early age, reportedly "freaking out" at the age of twelve during the Russian launch of Sputnik into space. "I was the school authority and archivist on Sputnik," he said.

In 1965, von Hagens entered medical school at the University of Jena, south of Leipzig, and the birthplace of writers Schiller and Goethe. His unorthodox methods and flamboyant personality were remarkable enough to be noted on academic reports from the university. "Gunther Liebchen is a personality who does not approach tasks systematically. This characteristic and his imaginativeness, that sometimes let him forget about reality, occasionally led to the development of very willful and unusual ways of working-but never in a manner that would have harmed the collective of his seminary group. On the contrary, his ways often encouraged his fellow students to critically review their own work."

While at the university, von Hagens began to question Communism and Socialism, and widened his knowledge of politics by gathering information from Western news sources. He later participated in student protests against the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops. In January, 1969, in the guise of a vacationing student, von Hagens made his way across Bulgaria and Hungary, and on January 7th, attempted to cross the Czechoslovakian border into Austria and freedom. He failed, but made a second attempt the very next day, at another location along the border. This time the authorities detained him. "While I was in detention, a sympathetic guard left a window open for me so that I could escape. I hesitated and couldn't make up my mind, and that decision cost me a great deal," he says. Gunther von Hagens was arrested, extradited to East Germany, and imprisoned for two years. Only 23 years old at the time, the iconoclastic von Hagens was viewed as a threat to the socialist way of life, and therefore in need of rehabilitation and citizenship education. According to the prison records for Gunther Liebchen, "The prisoner is to be trained to develop an appropriate class consciousness so that in his future life, he will follow the standards and regulations of our society. The prisoner is to be made aware of the dangerousness of his way of behaving, and in doing so, the prisoner's conclusions of his future behavior as a citizen of the social state need to be established."

Thirty-six years after his incarceration, Gunther von Hagens finds meaning and even redemption in his lost years. "The deep friendships I formed there with other prisoners, and the terrible aspects of captivity that I was forced to overcome through my fantasy life, helped shape my sense of solidarity with others, my reliance on my own mind and body when denied freedom, and my capacity for endurance. All that I learned in prison helped me later in my life as a scientist."
In 1970, after West Germany's purchase of his freedom, von Hagens enrolled at the University of Lubeck to complete his medical studies. Upon graduation in 1973, he took up residency at a hospital on Heligoland-a duty free island where the access to cheap liquor resulted in a substantial population of alcoholics. A year later, after obtaining his medical degree, he joined the Department of Anesthesiology and Emergency Medicine at Heidelberg University, where he came to a realization that his pensive mind was unsuitable for the tedious routines demanded of an anesthesiologist. In June 1975, he married Dr. Cornelia von Hagens, a former classmate, and adopted her last name. The couple had three children, Rurik, Bera, and Tona.

In 1975, while serving as a resident and lecturer-the start of an eighteen year career at the university's Institute of Pathology and Anatomy-von Hagens invented Plastination, his groundbreaking technology for preserving anatomical specimens with the use of reactive polymers. "I was looking at a collection of specimens embedded in plastic. It was the most advanced preservation technique then, where the specimens rested deep inside a transparent plastic block. I wondered why the plastic was poured and then cured around the specimens rather than pushed into the cells, which would stabilize the specimens from within and literally allow you to grasp it."

He patented the method and over the next six years, von Hagens spent all his energies refining his invention. In Plastination, the first step is to halt decomposition. "The deceased body is embalmed with a formalin injection to the arteries, while smaller specimens are immersed in formalin. After dissection, all bodily fluids and soluble fat in the specimens are then extracted and replaced through vacuum-forced impregnation with reactive resins and elastomers such as silicon rubber and epoxy," he says. After posing of the specimens for optimal teaching value, they are cured with light, heat, or certain gases. The resulting specimens or plastinates assume rigidity and permanence. "I am still developing my invention further, even today, as it is not yet perfect," he says.

During this time, von Hagens started his own company, BIODUR Products, to distribute the special polymers, equipment, and technology used for Plastination to medical institutions around the globe. Currently, more than 400 institutions in 40 countries worldwide use Gunther von Hagens' invention to preserve anatomical specimens for medical instruction. In 1983, Catholic Church figures asked Dr. von Hagens to plastinate the heel bone of St. Hildegard of Bingen, (1090-1179), a beatified mystic, theologian, and writer revered in Germany. His later offer to perform Plastination on Pope John Paul II foundered before serious discussions.

In 1992, von Hagens married Dr. Angelina Whalley, a physician who serves as his Business Manager as well as the designer of the BODY WORLDS exhibitions. A year later, Dr. von Hagens founded the Heidelberg-based Institute for Plastination, which offers plastinated specimens for educational use and for BODY WORLDS, which premiered in Japan in 1995. To date, the exhibitions have been viewed by more than 34 million people, in cities countries across Europe, Asia, and North America. His continued efforts to present the exhibitions, even in the face of opposition and often blistering attacks are, he says, the burden he must bear as a public anatomist and teacher. "The anatomist alone is assigned a specific role-he is forced in his daily work to reject the taboos and convictions that people have about death and the dead. I myself am not controversial, but my exhibitions are, because I am asking viewers to transcend their fundamental beliefs and convictions about our joint and inescapable fate." Apparently determined to exhaust the limits of living in freedom, Dr. von Hagens has made a concerted effort to travel and propagate his interests around the globe. He accepted a visiting professorship at Dalian Medical University in China in 1996, and became director of the Plastination research center at the State Medical Academy in Bishkek/Kyrgyzstan. In 2001, he founded a private company, the Von Hagens Dalian Plastination Ltd., in Dalian, China. 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 that will use plastinated specimens in lieu of dissection.

Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS exhibitions are currently showing in  America, Europe and Asia. "The human body is the last remaining nature in a man made environment," he says. "I hope for the exhibitions to be places of enlightenment and contemplation, even of philosophical and religious self recognition, and open to interpretation regardless of the background and philosophy of life of the viewer."

Pics taken on Neelam Cyclone









Diwali Celebration at my office






Ashok in School T-shirt

Vice captain (Justin) came in investigation on Guest Appearance (Ashok)

Guest Appearance (Ashok) in call with customer care

Guest Appearance (Ashok) is explaining that T-shirt is bought in Second standard 

Captain (Ram) and Vice captain (Justin) preparing for investigation

Guest Appearance (Ashok) in the Investigators view, OMG he got caught

Guest Appearance (Ashok) caught in the hands of Opener (Sumanth), Sumanth is pointing  towards the T-shirt

Caret Browsing


Caret Browsing
Caret Browsing Enabled Browser - with cursor
 
Caret Browsing
Caret Browsing Disabled Browser - without cursor
In computing, caret navigation is a type of keyboard navigation in which a caret (also known as "text cursor", "text insertion cursor", or "text selection cursor") is used to navigate within a text document. It is a fundamental feature for applications that deal with text, for example text editors, word processors and desktop publishing programs.

This type of navigation is supported by the Mozilla-based browsers, IE 8 and browsers, where it is referred as "caret browsing". A shortcut key (F7) is assigned to toggle between caret mode and non-caret mode. In caret mode, a blinking caret appears within the webpage. User can then navigate the webpage using arrow keys. The navigation is finer than spatial navigation and tabbing navigation, which deals with hyperlinks only, but most times it is slower. Press F7 again to turn off the feature.

Page Break in Microsoft Word

Normally, while using word to compose something, we use Enter to break a paragraph or to move the paragraph to the next page. We can use Page Break to break or to move the paragraph to the next page.
Insert Tab, Page Break
Insert Tab in Microsoft Word

Manual Page Break


Method I:

  1.  Press Ctrl + Enter to manually apply Page Break.

Method II:

  1. Place the cursor where you want to move the paragraph. 
  2. On the Insert tab, in the Pages group, click Page Break.

Prevent page breaks in the middle of a paragraph

Paragraph dialog box
Paragraph dialog box
  1. Select the paragraph that you want to prevent from breaking onto two pages.
  2. On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab.
  3. Select the Keep lines together check box.

Prevent page breaks between paragraphs

  1. Select the paragraphs that you want to keep together on a single page.
  2. On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab.
  3. Select the Keep with next check box.

Specify a page break before a paragraph

  1. Click the paragraph that you want to follow the page break.
  2. On the Page Layout tab, click the Paragraph Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab.
  3. Select the Page break before check box.

The connected state of Office Add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed

You may receive this error if you try to enable an add-in in Microsoft Office tools (Word, PowerPoint, Excel and so on). To resolve this issue:
  1. Log on to your the computer as an administrator.
  2. Enable any disabled items in the screen given below.


    The connected state of Office Add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed 1

    The connected state of Office Add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed 2

    The connected state of Office Add-ins registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed 3
  3. Restart your computer.



Tips to Select Text Vertically by Using Keyboard Shortcut in Microsoft Word

select text vertically
select text vertically

If you are dealing a lot with Microsoft Word in daily work, the tips mentioned here could be very useful for you. For a document writer or editor, moving a paragraph or any piece of information around the articles could be a tedious job. However, with these easy shortcut key solutions, you can save a lot of effort to be spent on more value added tasks.

You may occasionally need to copy text from other source to be part of your new article’s contents. Most of the time, it doesn’t really fits well and some editing such as removing all the special character at the beginning of each lines are required. Again this simple shortcut key will be beneficial when dealing with partial text selection vertically. Just press and hold the Alt key will allow you to select those specific text vertically to be copied, cut or even deleted. There are more shortcut keys to be explored and I am sure this will make the document editing an enjoyable experience for all.

Tips to Move Paragraph by Using Keyboard Shortcut in Microsoft Word

Tips to Move Paragraph
Tips to Move Paragraph

If you are dealing a lot with Microsoft Word in daily work, the tips mentioned here could be very useful for you. For a document writer or editor, moving a paragraph or any piece of information around the articles could be a tedious job. However, with these easy shortcut key solutions, you can save a lot of effort to be spent on more value added tasks.

There is simple keyboard shortcut key solutions to be discussed here. It is the way to move a whole paragraph up or down in the articles in simple steps. To accomplish this, just put your cursor anywhere in the paragraph and not even need to highlight the whole paragraph that you intend to move, just press and hold down the Shift+Alt+Up/Down key to move it to the desired location freely without hassle. Other than paragraph, the same method can be applied to move the table’s row up or down as you wish to.