"My cat dragged in what appeared to be an odd-looking bird. Imagine my excitement when on closer inspection, it proved to be a real live dead Rhamphorhynchus! I had to dissect it immediately! Unfortunately, my camera jammed, so I had to paint the whole process." - John Conway's Paleontography
posted by brundlefly on Mar 28, 2009 - 22 comments

Actress Natasha Richardson died yesterday at the age of 45 after a fall while taking a beginner's lesson at the Mont Tremblant Ski Resort, located 80 miles northwest of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Mar 19, 2009 - 145 comments

Scientists at the Auckland Museum will be performing a necropsy of a great white Shark between 11am and 1pm New Zealand time on Thursday. Though they will be examining the contents of its gut, they will also, among other things, look at its sex organs (female) and jaw. The necropsy will be viewable on the web from 2pm NZ time (when's that?). [more inside]
posted by nthdegx on Jan 7, 2009 - 18 comments

Body Worlds is an art exhibition that toured Europe from 2001-2003. Retooled for 'aught five, it has made its way to the New World for stays in Philadelphia and Toronto. The brainchild of Gunther von Hagens, a German anatomist, progenitor and patentee of the plastination technique of preservation, Body Worlds features actual human corpses: plastinated, dissected and posed. Nutjob? Artist? Criminal? von Hagens says his aims are primarily educational. Slate has an informative sideshow about the current exhibit, its origins and predecessors. Criticisms of this work run the gamut from predictable outrage to marxist. But if you're interested, you can request plastination services, or go to the man himself and donate your body(cool downloadable brochure on this page). And, of course, what would a good exhibition be without a shop? Previously discussed, the first time around, here, here, here,and here. Similar exhibit in San Francisco this past summer called "The Universe Within". Plastination is also apparently a musical phenomenon.
posted by kosem on Nov 4, 2005 - 69 comments

Virtual Pig Dissection.
Requires Shockwave. Not for the faint of heart.
posted by tamim on Oct 16, 2000 - 3 comments