Flights

THE POLYMER PRESERVATION PROCESS, STEP BY STEP:

– First, you prep the body as you normally would for dissection, i.e. by draining the blood;

– during the dissection you expose the parts you want to show – for example, if it’s muscle, you have to remove the skin and the fat tissue. At this stage, you position the body as desired;

– next you bathe the specimen in acetone to get rid of any remaining fluids;

– the dehydrated specimen is then immersed in a silicone polymer bath and sealed inside a vacuum chamber;

– in the chamber, the acetone evaporates, and the silicone polymer takes its place, working its way into the tissues’ deepest recesses;

– the silicone hardens but stays pliant.

I’ve touched a kidney and a liver that had been prepared in this way – they were like toys made out of tough rubber, the kinds of balls you throw for a dog to play fetch with. And the line between what is fake and what is real suddenly became very fine. I also had the rather unnerving suspicion that this technique could permanently transform original into copy.