Bodyworlds exhibit

[Anubis]

I've already posted this in the 'off topic' forum. Not too many responses there, so I thought the General Health forum might be a more appropriate place to post this.

I just returned from Chicago and the Museum of Science and Industry where they have the Body Worlds exhibit going on (until September).

For those of you who are not familiar with Body Worlds. It's a form of preserving bodies for educational purposes via Plastination, a technique where they can preserve bodies in their natural state (everything looks as if it were if they were still alive).

The fascinating thing about it is some of them are stripped of their skin and put in poses where you can see every muscle, every vessel, every nerve, every organ. It's simply amazing.

I would have taken pictures but they prohibited it. You can catch a glipse of some of the displays at BODYWORLDS
Keep in mind these are Real People who have donated their bodies. Everything in the exhibit is real, every intricate detail (one man is holding his skin out in front of him while he stands in nothing but his own muscle, bones and ligaments/tendons - One man is on horseback where the horse itself is stripped of its skin so you can see the anatomy of the horse that the man is riding).

It is a very large exhibit that took over 2 hours to go through. It's currently also in Cleveland and will be going to Toronto and Philidelphia.

Some of you may be grossed out, some of you will be amazed like I was.

Click Here for the Gallery

[TrainingGirl]

Wow...extremely interesting to me. Hmmm...I might need to go check that out. Oh, I'm just gonna have to get a trip to Philly together now. Thanks for posting!

[Q.]

Pretty cool stuff. I wonder if it'll move around, as in be exhibited elsewhere?

[Anubis]

Originally posted by Q.:
Pretty cool stuff. I wonder if it'll move around, as in be exhibited elsewhere?

Q, I don't know if it will be going anywhere as far south as Texas. Have you visited the website? I know they mention upcoming dates/locations but maybe they have info. on where it will be the following year.

The links I provided are of the gallery. The main page has the location dates

bodyworlds.com

[Q.]

Yes, I went through the pictures but was on my dial-up service at home last night so I didn't see all the rest of the stuff. Missed the comments about upcoming dates/locations.

Creepy! Makes you wonder about someone who would think such a thing up.

[Anubis]

Yeah, I'm sure the people who come up with this stuff would be considered to be somewhat of a 'mad scientist type' by most people. But I believe it's because of people like this that allow us to become more knowledgeable about the human body and the ways it works. The old methods of formaldahyde (sp?) cadavers were just too difficult to make anything out for students and curious onlookers. Everything is the same color, everything is mashed up real small. In the case of plastination, everything is as it would be if they were to view it within a living person. I can't imagine the amount of work that's put into this type of field, but I must say I'm in awe and complete respect.

Perhaps I should donate my body There is actually an application for body donations on the website.