Das Ausstellungsschiff “MS Wissenschaft” ankert seit heute im Bereich des alten Marstalls (in der Nähe der alten Brücke) an den Gestaden des Neckars ;). Noch bis zum 09. September können sich Interessierte von 10 bis 19 Uhr in einer Ausstellung unter dem Motto “Wissenschaft im Dialog – Sprache ist mehr als Worte” über den Themenkomplex Sprache und Kommunikation informieren.
Aus der Sicht verschiedener wissenschaftlicher Disziplinen wird dieses Thema beleuchtet – so beschäftigen sich unter anderem die Ethnologie, Neurologie, Psychologie und sogar die Ingenieurswissenschaften mit verschiedenen Aspekten der Kommunikation. Der Eintritt ist frei. Größere Gruppen und Schulklassen sollten sich aber im Voraus anmelden (siehe unten).

Besucher sind dazu aufgefordert, “seltene oder kaum bekannte Wörter” mitzubringen. Die außergewöhnlichsten Fundstücke werden regelmäßig gekürt.

Die MS Wissenschaft begann ihre Reise quer durch die Republik am 07. Juni 2007 in Hamburg und wird am 07. Oktober 2007 ihre letzte Ankerstelle in Passau anlaufen.

Weitere Informationen

• Homepage mit weiteren Infos zur MS Wissenschaft (Tourplan, Programm, Presseinfo etc).

At 9:30am this morning my excursion to the body-worlds began. but first i had to pick up a friend of mine and we had a quick breakfast at his place. the drive to Frankfurt-Fechenheim was no deal but finding the event-hall in midst of an industrial park took us quite long. there were buses filled with crowds of highscool students awaiting us.. as if they had nothing better to do at 11 o’clock! even so it was not necessary to stand in line at the cash box (in mannheim visitors often had to wait 4h to get in!) … the admission charge was 9 Euro (reduced prize), catalogues and wireless info phones not included.

Unfortunately the exposition itself really was a big disappointment for me (maybe my expectations were to high?). the show room had only about 200 square meters, which is about 600 square feet, and there were only circa 25-30 full body plastinations and several smaller parts on display. Some of them were clearly designed only for cheap show effects and had no educational message at all, others i had already seen before. Just 1h later we were on our way back home & i had spent about 30 Euro altogether. btw. no cameras were allowed, so i don’t have any pictures for you. mind you, i would not show them anyway…

on the whole, instead of spending that much money for almost nothing, i would rather recommend to visit an anatomical institute at a university nearby. most of them have anatomical exhibits of their own and will surely let you see them (free of charge).

The notorious anatomical exhibition body worlds is back in germany again. it is supposed to have completely new and unseen preparations. back in the 90ies i have visited the showroom in mannheim and was quite impressed.
in the meantime the exhibition and his founder – the infamous “professor” von-Hagens, inventor of the plastination-method – has been the object of many scandals in regard to the aquisition of dead persons and other ethical questions (e.g. the correctnes of his professorship).
Von-Hagens, who has temporarily been a professor for anatomy at the university of heidelberg in the 80ies, is known to be a wacky/eccentric person. He has a strange, “artistic” approach to the prepararion of his anatomic exhibits, which i find quite inappropriate. He always said in defence, that the plastinated corpse has no identity any more, but becomes an article of virtue of it’s own, and noone will recognise the donator, anyway – thus the peace of the dead cannot not disturbed. Yet, lately von-Hagens plans to reveal the identity of each exhibit in order to rebut all reproaches linked to the alleged utilisation of chinese death-row-candidates for preparation! So, maybe every exhibit will soon be labled like that: “this has been klaus mueller from duesburg who died of heart failure”. How bizarre.
Nevertheless, i will visit the exhibition on wednesday, cause it is indisputable, that those plastinations are an invaluable source of anatomical education for medical students… if medical laypersons (even children) should be allowed to visit the exhibition, well, that’s another story!