My Experience at Body Worlds

My Experience at Body Worlds

During the winter of 2007, I went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago to see a most unusual exhibit. It was one of the four Body Worlds exhibits that are traveling around the world.

The first thing most people think when they hear that it is an exhibit of real human bodies that have been preserved, is that it will be something gross. Certainly, if I was told about it ten years ago I probably would have said, "Eeeeeewww! No way!" (If you are thinking this, please read my whole blog so that you can understand why this exhibit exists.)

However, my entire life has changed over the last ten years. While I used to be completely repulsed by the thought of death, it doesn't really bother me anymore. I am going to school to become a nurse. It just so happens that when I was taking Anatomy & Physiology, I heard about Body Worlds. Anyone who has had to do a dissection (animal or cadaver) knows how smelly and disgusting it can be. THIS IS VERY DIFFERENT.

First of all, they use a special process to preserve the bodies, called plastination. Without getting into great detail explaining it, here is the cut and dry: nothing smells, nothing is gross, and it's really cool.

Why would anyone want to see these exhibits? For me it was definitely educational. There is only so much you can learn from human models and regularly preserved cadavers. With this plastination process, you can see things that you wouldn't normally see. For example, all of the blood vessels:

The main goal of the exhibits is education. Certainly anyone in the health care field or in school learning about it is going to get something out of it. However, this exhibit is designed so that every day people can get something out of it. For example, the effects of certain diseases and life style choices. They show a normal body organ, and then one that is abnormal. Here is a normal healthy lung and a smokers lung:

There are some bodies that you can see every single artery and vein. Some of them show you the entire spinal cord and nerves. You will never get that in a classroom or lab.

A lot of the bodies show the musculature of people doing various things. For example sports or ballet.

Finally, people going into the exhibit are very respectful. The displays are done very tastefully and respectfully, too. I would say most people are in awe as they walk through. My husband went with me and he actually seemed to enjoy it too (he is not in healthcare).

There were some older children at the exhibit. I heard parents explaining things and children asking really neat questions. I believe if you have a relatively mature, inquisitive child, they would really enjoy it. I chose not to bring my children with us, but after seeing it, I would bring my nine year old. She is very interested in learning about the human body and I know she would be mature. Their are two things that parents should be cautious about. They do use the entire human body (including genitalia), so they need to be mature enough to handle that. Also, there is a section about fetal development. This area is behind a curtain, so that if you want to avoid it, you can.

If you ever get the chance to see one of the Body World exhibits, I highly recommend it. If given the chance, I would go again.

For more information: www.bodyworlds.com

*all pictures are from their web site's press release section.