Bodies: The Exhibit
 

Well...I went to see the Bodies Exhibit in New York in November of this year and, being the biology geek that I am, I loved it and learnt a lot from it.

A week ago, I saw the Bodyworlds II exhibit at my local science centre and loved it as well, though a little less than the one in New York.

For those of you not familiar with this exhibit, it involves the display of real bodies that have been plastinated and effectively dissected so as to show their interiors. There has been a lot of controversy about these exhibits, whether they are ethical, etc. All bodies exhibited belong to informed people who signed numerous consent forms accepting that their body be donated to this exhibit for plastination and exhibition. I found this exhibit brilliant, as it showed bodies under the naked truth (pardon the pun) and the real impacts of many situations such as smoking, strokes, kidney disease, breast cancer, heart attacks and even abnormal fetal development.

Have any of you seen the exhibit? If so, what did you think? Would you recommend it to others? Do you have thoughts on the ethical standpoint? Please share!

For more information, the website is below.
http://www.bodiestheexhibition.com/intro.html

I went there when it was in toronto... twice
^___^ but I love science

It was neat eh? The one I saw here in Montréal was the same as the one in Toronto. Do you live in Canada? The thought escapes me...my cerebellum is fried and I don't remember anything.

It's rather ironic how biology, the study of life, is killing me.

its a half hour away from my house, but i dont know if i could enjoy it asthetically, as i have no biological interests. do you think its still worth the fourty bucks even without the anatomy interest?

If you enjoyed Bodyworlds (or any of the other plastination displays) you'd probably like the documentaries 'Anatomy For Beginners' and 'Autopsy' made by the original minds behind plastination. They're basically just human dissections on camera. 'Anatomy For Beginners' was the first thing I ever witnessed that actually managed to put me off my lunch (and almost off becoming a surgeon, but not quite).

I got to go see Body Worlds II with my Anatomy Class. It made the cats we were dissecting look so... Sophomoric...

(and yes, sophomoric is the right word there)

I would love to go see one of these exibits, insides are fascinating.

Wow, this is amazing! I wish there were exhibitions of that sort in my country... *sigh* I can't say I like biology all that much, but yes, insides ARE fascinating.

I went to see in in January in Las Vegas. To be honest, I was quite disappointed with it. I was more fascinated with the exhibit when the Discovery channel did a show about the exhibit. Seeing it in person was quite boring actually. Perhaps it was just me, but I really had so much fun I was seriously considering demanding my money back.

I don't know if that's the same exhibit I have seen. I saw one at the Tokyo Forum called 人体の不思議 (jinntai no fushigi : "mysteries of the human body"). Some Japanese dudes carved up a bunch of "volunteer" Chinese people. I touched a human brain. Grooooooooooooosss.

Drake

I agree with Romantic Raven, 'tis a pity there aren't any good exhibitions like that around in my country. Ah well, I might just borrow Cicero's anatomy DVD to compensate for that (and probably not be able to eat anything mushy for the next month but oh well :p)

I was going to go see it (or an exhibit like it) in L.A., but never got to. Next time I get the chance though, I'm so going.

Due to the graphic nature of this video, you have to sign in and confirm you are 18 to watch this, but I did not find it squeamish at all, absolutely fascinating!

Female autopsy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRAh3Qse-Us

WARNING:
The body was a (relatively) young victim of an overdose of anti-depressants. The corpse is sliced open rather quickly and expertly, the blood was previously drained but there are still traces of decomposition fluid. They then cut open her ribs with shears that look like they were made for cutting tree branches, and the even remove her brain (after cutting the optic nerves attaching it). They also discover that she had breast implants and remove them.

I did not have any nightmares after watching it, but then, that is me.
:D

That was indeed fascinating. As soon as they'd cut her open down to the abdomen I didn't consider her human at all anymore, just another body of meat and bones that the surgeons open up and have a looksie in. Pretty weird feeling actually, but yet another testament that a dead body is but a shell of what it once was.

(Argh, only just noticed this)

One of the body exhibits will be in Melbourne later this year... like in July. And they've been here many times before. After the holidays I'll show you!

It sounds really interesting.

I got an ad for this but opted not to go -- my kids are too young and I get too squeamish to go by myself. Although the odd part was that the ad for this had a discount coupon specifically marketed towards homeschoolers. I don't homeschool, and most of the people I know who do are hardcore fundamentalists.....so that was a head scratcher.

HumanePain, great video, fascinating indeed, but also rather disturbing. Reminded me of the chunks of meat you see at the butcher's. I think I'll stick to my veggies... at least for today.

Actually that makes sense to me. I'm home schooled, and although you don't miss out on any of the curriculum, there is quite the decreased chance for organized field trips (obviously I can go places like museums and such, but both of my parents work during the day, it's not like one of them can just drop everything to take me places), and with the exception of labs, all of the learning is out of the books. So any sort of "hands-on" learning is always really great.

I saw it a while back when it was in Florida. It was pretty interesting. Also, saw a heart with a heart murmur, which is what I have.... so it was kinda creepy. But I saw it with my science class in 11th grade. Unfortunately there were some who were immature, pointing out the genitals and laughing.

I am seeing it this weekend. It really seems interesting and I am fairly sure I can enjoy it aesthetically.