Editing Plastination (section)

==History==
[[File:Gunther von Hagens 2.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.5|German anatomist [[Gunther von Hagens]], the inventor of plastination]]
In November 1979, [[Gunther von Hagens]] applied for a German patent, proposing the idea of preserving animal and vegetable tissues permanently by synthetic resin impregnation.<ref>{{Ref patent |country=DE |number=2710147 |status=patent |title=Präparat aus biologischen verweslichen Objekten und Verfahren zu ihrer Herstellung |gdate=14 September 1978}}</ref> Since then, von Hagens has applied for further US patents regarding work on preserving biological tissues with polymers.<ref>{{Ref patent |country=US |number=4205059 |status=patent |title=Animal and vegetal tissues permanently preserved by synthetic resin  |gdate=27 May 1980}}</ref><ref>{{Ref patent |country=US |number=4320157 |status=patent |title=Method for preserving large sections of biological tissue with polymers  |gdate=16 March 1982}}</ref>

With the success of his patents, von Hagens went on to form the Institute for Plastination in Heidelberg, Germany in 1993. The Institute for Plastination, along with von Hagens, made their first showing of plastinated bodies in Japan in 1995, which drew more than three million visitors. The institute maintains three international centres of plastination, in Germany, Kyrgyzstan, and China.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.biodurproducts.com/en/plastination/preservation_plastination.html |title=Preservation by Plastination |publisher=BIODUR |access-date=5 March 2009}}</ref>