Body Worlds Exhibit Review

Body Worlds, the anatomical exhibition of real human bodies, is winding up its display at the St Louis Science Center.  Franki and I got a pair of comp tickets for the review, and so we headed over to the Science Center last Friday.

We originally looked at goin back in December, but the crowds on the weekends had been so heavy, we waited until we could take some time during the week.  The crowds were still there, but we were able to get in inside 30 minutes.

The first thing you should know is that these are real human bodies.  Donors agreed to have their bodies plastinized so that people like you and I could look at him, and understand more about how the human body works.  Plastination is a process  invented by Dr. Gunther von Hagens to preserve human bones and tissues, which then can be arranged to create aesthetically pleasing views of our insides.

The Science Center is of course a treat to take kids too in general, but the Body Worlds exhibit is a bit more than your typical scientific field trip.  You're looking at hearts, livers, muscles, bone fragments, and when you get past the visual display, there's the recognition that this sculpture in front of you was actually a person at some point.  That's a pretty trippy experience.

The way the exhibit works is its set up in a conference type hall, with entry times every half hour.  You purchase tickets (for the weekends, its recommended you buy them 72 hours in advance through Ticketmaster), and then enter the exhibit.  You have the option to answer a survey prior to the exhibit, which if you fill out, and then fill out a post-exhibit survery, will entitle you to a Body Worlds DVD as a free gift.

The actual exhibit is broken into categories.  Muscles, Waste, Fetal Develpment, Disease. Each category displays and then explains how the body functions, and in some cases, how it ceases to function.  The blackened lungs display was far more graphic than I've seen before, if only because it was 3D and in front of me. 

Health information is actually prevalent throughout the exhibit.  The goal is to show you healthy tissue, and then show you how your actions affect the function of that tissue.  I imagine as a child, that seeing this could have a profound impact on how you look at your body, and if handled correctly, can be a useful catalyst for a conversation about the why of health.  It's one thing to say eat healthy and don't smoke.  It's another to show an actual person's inside who didn't follow that advice.

The Fetus information is also really informative.  Checking out the difference between 4 week and 28 weeks, or even 24 weeks and 28 weeks, was incredibly cool.  They make sure you know the displays are from pre-exisiting samples, and not from aborted children for the experiment

The exhibit was neat.  I enjoyed it, and thought my nieces and nephews would enjoy it, at least the two older ones.  It might be a bit scary, but if you're prepared for the questions, its a good place to take children.  And if you just want to see the insides human body without creepy music and a guy in a hockey mask, this is the place to go.

My final thoughts were actually kinda cool.  Seeing the bodies before me, it struck me that the body is the not the sum total of human existence.  These were real bodies that were displayed in front of me, but the person, was no longer there. We are more than the sum of our fleshy parts.  And one other thing...with the skin removed, you can't tell what race a man or woman is.  On the inside, we're awfully alike.

To purchase tickets, head on over to the SLSC.org website and click on BodyWorlds.