And, one thing in particular which confuses Hans about Joachim is the latter's concept of time. Unknowingly Joachim has taken on some of the characteristics of the mode of life at the Berghof. Mann uses nature here to evoke new, unfamiliar feelings in Hans, feelings of vagueness and timelessness - feelings which will he intensified later on as he ventures higher into the regions of eternal snow and ice.īesides using nature to introduce the newcomer to the sanatorium, Mann also uses Joachim Ziemssen, Castorp's cousin. As a newcomer, Hans Castorp is exposed, first of all, to the thin air of the Berghof and the bizarre silhouettes of dense forests and snowcapped peaks surrounding it. Throughout this book are countless, recurring variations on the theme of time. The opening sentences also contain the novel's other major theme: the complexity and mystery of time. This is, of course, the major theme of the novel: the lengthy, cumbersome, and perilous road of Hans Castorp's self-education. Mann merely mentions Castorp's simplicity to emphasize his faculty of meeting the countless influences to which he is exposed and to resist the many temptations to commit himself permanently to any view or cause. By the time Gey actually had legitimate cells no one cared.The first two sentences of the novel's foreword deserve special attention, for they contain the hero's characterization as "simple-minded." As the story progresses, we become increasingly aware that Hans Castorp is by no means a "simple-minded" young man in the derogatory sense of the term. So his chicken heart cells were a joke, which turned the idea of tissue culture into a joke and racism, Nazis and all the other nonsense Carrel spread around. With some investigation Leonard Hayflick found that Carrel was putting new cells into the culture when he was "feeding" them with "embryo juice". He was reported to say that his chicken heart cells would reach a greater volume than the solar system! Back in reality his original cells died many years before. Although many white Americans thought he was a genius, other scientists distanced themselves from him. While the media frenzied around him he turned his apartment into a chapel where he gave lectures about medical miracles and his hopes to become a dictator in South America. Don't get me wrong Carrel was brilliant, he performed the first coronary bypass surgery and even made methods for organ transplantation, but he was crazy. He even went so far as to support Hitler's "energetic measures" for preserving the superior white race. As Carrel's popularity spread he began proposing radical ideas that only wealthy, white men could benefit from his work. They thought that he was a genius and that his medical miracle would allow man to be immortal and virtually disease free, however that was not the case. In 1912 a Frenchmen named Alexis Carrel grew an "immortal chicken heart" and made the first technique for suturing blood vessels together.
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Even though the spread of her cells was massive, cell culture wasn't considered important by 1951. Scientists sent the cells to others and soon HeLa cells were all over the world. They went to Texas, New York, Amsterdam and even India! But that's not where it stopped. He sent her cells everywhere there were scientists who might use them for cancer research. Gey hoped that the cells would help to cure or control cancer. He didn't mention Henrietta, in fact at this point she didn't know they were even hers, but he talked about how they would change the world of medicine. April 10, 1951- George Gey was on WAAM television in Baltimore to talk about his immortal cells.