In
the late 18th century, the townspeople of Florence, Italy, were
shocked by the appearance of a new technological marvel: life-sized
wax figures showing the human form in unbelievably lifelike detail.
These models, called the "Medical Venuses," were the result of
over 200 dissections and countless hours of painstaking work by
wax craftsmen. They represented the cutting edge of 3-dimensional
imaging technology at the time, and are still used by medical
students to study anatomy today. On June 24, the Live @ The Exploratorium
team travelled to Museo La Specola in Florence, home to hundreds
of these beautiful, haunting figures. Linked to the Exploratorium
and the world via satellite and the World Wide Web, our remote
team explored the impact these models have had on the medical
world, and the development of new cutting-edge 3-D imaging, called
solid imaging, brought to us by 3D
Systems.
Learn
more about the wax model collection at La Specola at their website.
