Understanding complex systems: lessons from Auzoux’s and von Hagens’s anatomical models

Abstract

Animal and human anatomy is among the most complex systems known, and suitable teaching methods have been of great importance in the progress of knowledge. Examining the human body is part of the process by which medical students come to understand living forms. However, the need to preserve cadavers has led to the development of various techniques to manufacture models for teaching purposes. A variety of materials, such as wax, wood, papier-mache, or glass, have long been used to construct animal and plant models. In the case of the human body, the most innovative, yet controversial, method of preservation has been plastination, invented by the German physician Gunther von Hagens, by which actual human bodies are preserved as odourless and aesthetic models for teaching and exhibitions. We point out in our study that the 'hands-on' approach that some anatomical models allow, namely, the (clastic) disassembly and reassembly of the parts of complex systems and their models, is not only a crucial tool for learning, but is far superior to the simple passive observation that rigid, single-piece models allow. And what is valid for the learning of anatomy can be generalized to the acquisition of knowledge of other complex physical systems.

Medical 3D Printing for the Radiologist

“…Three-dimensional models are proven tools for educating medical students and house officers, although there is no literature to our knowledge that focuses specifically on radiology education. Although learning of complex geometries in human anatomy has been facilitated with 3D visualization methods and novel educational applications (105), there is little dispute that physical models provide an optimal tool to learn anatomy (106). The cost is favorable when compared with that of cadaveric materials, and normal anatomic variations can be readily demonstrated.…”

Comparison of injection/dissection and injection/corrosion methods: example of vertebral veins in the transverse canal

“…Therefore, normal as well as pathological anatomical specimens were preserved in collections [16]. The collections preserved in medical colleges, which may include recent plastinated models [3] or old wax models [23], are still used to teach anatomy to medical students. Alberti et al stressed the utility of these collections in research and teaching.…”

J. B. S. Haldane, Ernst Mayr and the Beanbag Genetics Dispute

“…121 Plutynski, 2004. 122 Valdecasas et al, 2009. Two examples bring out the contrasting attitudes towards abstractions. The first of them illustrates a reaction commonly experienced by anyone who has tried to get across the notion that abstractions, in particular those implicit in mathematical models, can be meaningful.…”