Thanks for pointing out that interesting exhibition on WWI facial reconstruction/prosthetics.

As a note, given the tech-savvy nature of BoingBoing, it might be worth mentioning what's probably the most well-known patient of such procedures (given the readership).

Namely Gaston Julia, the father of the famous Julia set fractal, who quite literally had his nose shot off in WWI.

Most of the work he is now so famous for was performed during the period while he was in hospital having his face put back together, as best they could. However, he ended up wearing a patch covering (what had been) his nose for the rest of his life. Bio (with pic): Link.

He refused a discharge for his injury. Luckily for mathematics and fractal-lovers, the war was over by the time he'd recovered. So he published the results and the rest is history, as they say.

(It seems his military courage didn't go unrewarded though - in the picture at the linked bio, it looks like he's wearing a Légion d'honneur - France's highest honor.)

Previously: Project Facade: Post WWI surgical facial reconstruction

posted by Xeni Jardin at 01:10:51 PM permalink | Other blogs' comments