On Monday afternoon, we decided to finally go to the MN Science Museum and see the BodyWorlds exhibit before it leaves Minneapolis in September and moves on. For those who haven't heard of this exhibit, it's a blending of art and science that presents donated human bodies and organs preserved through a process called plastination.
The bodies themselves are the focus with smaller organ-based displays in between. The body displays are in pretty much all cases, partially cut apart and arranged to show the complexity and beauty of a particular system. For instance, "The Thinker", is a chess player sitting at a table. From the back, they've cut the "top' of the spine and skull open and you can see the nervous system from the brain down the spinal cord and out as the nerves get smaller. Another has a runner with muscles disconnected at one end and spread out to show the layers upon layers of muscles involved in moving us around.
The organ exhibits in most cases show healthy organs compared to various conditions: a healthy brain vs tumor vs stroke, etc. Also touring the room were several museum employees with additional items for display. It was from one of these that I got the opportunity to hold a plastinated human liver and examine it.
The exhibit and the experience were phenomenal. It took several hours to get through it, and was worth every penny and every minute. If it's in your city or coming to your city, you need to see it. This is the biology class your high school couldn't afford.
Do note that there are currently 3 different sets touring the North America, so your city may have a different set of exhibits when the show comes to town. There are also several copycat exhibits that, instead of using expressly donated bodies are using unclaimed bodies or won't even say where they got them from. For me, the impact of the exhibit is that the bodies on display are there because their original owners specifically wanted them to be there.
Given my intent to donate my entire body to science when I die, I feel that this is important. A lot of the time, scientific activities that use human bodies run into ethical objections from the community. Yet, many of the donors feel like me. I want my body used for whatever will make the best contribution to scientific knowledge. Period.
Also, since the tickets include access to the rest of the museum as well, we went through the rest before seeing BodyWorlds. It had been a while since I'd done that and was especially intrigued by the exhibit in the attached photo, which is a sphere onto which is projected moving images of planets and moons and is used to show geologic motion and features. We sat, enthralled by the floating glowing ball that changed from Earth to the moon to Mars and worked its way through the solar system. According to the display, NOAA is responsible for coming up with the system and I'm glad they did. It, compared with a classroom globe is kind of like the difference between a star map and a planetarium. There's something entrancing about seeing it as a big ball hanging in space in front of you that just has a far bigger impact.
Also worth seeing is the outdoor native prairie maze, which is a good peek into what the native species of plants look like together without the transplants. And, you have to step on the scale and see how much blood your body contains. For the record, I nearly maxxed the thing out.
At any rate, it's good to see that the Science Museum is still keeping it real and putting good exhibits out. If you're ever in the Twin Cities, you should put it on your list.
