Biomedicine on Display

If you want a nice pet for your kids, why go to a home for abandoned cats (it only makes you feel bad because you can’t buy them all) or get in trouble with your neighbor who sold you the most wonderful kitten (it just happened to grew into a psychotic monster)? Get a fresh copy of your cosy, reliable pet instead. Buy a clone. Genetic Savings & Clone
will help you make an exact (genetic) copy of your old favorite and give its (genetic) features eternal life. The company “began delivering clones to clients before the end of 2004, and are continuing to produce and deliver clones for clients, now at a new price of $32,000″ (see more here). The price is approx. the same as a new Toyota.

They are now trying to develop the technology for cloning dogs. And who knows, the second next step in Genetic Savings & Clone’s corporate strategy may be a “clone-your-favorite child” program?
(learned about the company from Technology Review, MIT, 28 Dec.)

Ugen mellem jul og nytår er for mig altid en meditativ uge — med mere eller mindre eksistentielle ransagelser og kvababbelser (”hvad gjorde jeg nu forkert i året der gik”, “jeg ønsker jeg havde …”, “shit også …”) og indimellem glæde over, at der trods alt var noget, der ikke gik helt galt. Idag, da jeg sad og kikkede i gamle papirer om Museion-projektets efterhånden over 6-årige historie, slog det mig pludselig, at én af inspirationskilderne til Medicinsk Museion som et historisk-museologisk eksperiment nok har været erfaringerne fra Natkirken i København.
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Those who missed the conference ‘Biomedicine in the Twentieth Century: Practices, Policies, and Politics’ at NIH, Bethesday, 5-6 December can now watch video recordings of the talks through NIH’s website: go to http://videocast.nih.gov/PastEvents.asp, click on ‘50 Most Recent VideoCasts’ (they’ve got a lot of video-filmed conferences over there!) and scroll down to 5-6 December. Be patient — the two days fill 12 hours altogether, but there are several quite good talks, including:
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In our irregular series of posts about medical museums that must be seen (see earlier presentation here), the turn has now come to The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices, now at the Science Museum of Minnesota. Founded by a certain Bob McCoy (when?) it contains some 250 quack devices from the 19th and 20th centuries, including a prostate gland warmer, a phrenology machine, a recto rotor, a nose straightener, a wonder electro marvel, etc. One of the most recent artefacts is Continue Reading »

Den här essän skrevs som bidrag till konferensen “Medicinhistoria idag” (se annonce här), som hölls på Nobelmuseet i Stockholm den 22 august 2005. Konferensens målsättning var att “inventera och diskutera var svensk medicinhistorisk forskning står idag och vart den är på väg” (not 1) och ingick i den inledande sessionen om “Medicinhistoriens historia”, tillsammans med Karin Johannissons och Roger Qvarsells inlägg. Den kommer att publiceras i museets skriftserie, Nobel Museum Occasional Papers
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The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science announces two postdoctoral fellowships in conjunction with the Research Network „History of Scientific Objects“. (see also former post of 9 December)
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Re. earlier posts on this blog about human remains, I just found out that ebay.com has a policy about handling human remains:
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Call for papers for Southwest Colloquium in the History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences, 1-2 April, 2006. For details, see Philosophy of Biology blog, 12 Dec. 2005.

Max Planck Research Network on History of Scientific Objects Seminar comes to Copenhagen 9 -11 May, 2006. Here’s the announcement for the whole European tour:

With its Wandering Seminar on Scientific Objects the Max Planck Research Network establishes a new form of international cooperation. The principal aim of this project is to provide junior scholars of the history of science with first hand information about the latest developments in the field of material culture of science. Participants will have the opportunity to visit and work with rare collections Europe-wide. Museums will present themselves as sites for research and working place for historians of science.
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EASST Conference “Reviewing humanness: bodies, technologies and spaces”, 23-26 August, 2006, University of Lausanne. Paper and session proposals will now be accepted up to the new deadline of January 16th, 2006 Session proposals are provisionally published on the conference website ( see “what’s new”). Send your session proposal as soon as possible to easst2006@unil.ch
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EAMHMS (European Association of the Museums of the History of the Medical Sciences) is holding its 13th congress in Riga, Latvia, 23-27 August 2006. The congress theme is ‘Medical museums and disability’. The Paul Stradin Museum of the History of Medicine in Riga is hosting the meeting. Read more here.

Hvordan kan du? Er ofte det første spørgsmål jeg må besvare, når jeg fortæller om arbejdet med vådpræparaterne i Saxtorphs Samling, hvor jeg bogstaveligt talt, har siddet med præparaterne i hænderne og næsen presset flad mod glassene i dage, uger og måneder.

Svaret var hovedtemaet i mit oplæg i den konserveringsfaglige gruppe på årets Fuglsø møde. Her følger en forkortet og redigeret præsentation af oplægget:
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(Oplægget blev oprindeligt skrevet den 21. nov, men pga de mange kommentarer er det opdateret til den 6. dec)
Hører biobanker — og især det materiale som er i dem — til Medicinsk Museions aktivitetsområde?
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