In an impressive display of plastic prowess, Gunther von Hagens—the anatomist who invented the cadaver plastination process and created the Body Worlds exhibit—has successfully plastinated a giant squid.
This is no simple feat. Plastination replaces water in the body with silicone. Unlike the other vertebrate animals, including humans, that von Hagens has worked on in the past, the squid is far more liquid and has no built-in structural support system. Sadly, there's not much information in the article about how von Hagens managed to pull this off, but we are told that plastinating a squid is a much slower process.
New Scientist: Giant squid get radical plastic surgery
Image courtesy Flickr user Ryan Somma, via CC
