Thursday, October 18, 2007

Dead bodies on display

(Yeah, you know that would excite me right?)

If you pay $18 to get into the STL Science Center's new Body Worlds exhibit -- opening tomorrow -- you can see 20 of them, posed in different positions that mock living activities. Some of their parts, I'm told, have been cut open and spliced out so people can see their insides, and their skin has been removed.

And they're REAL. Donated to science. They've gone through a process called "plastination" during which the parts have been soaked in a silicone liquid several times, stopping decomposition and preserving them for "laypersons" from all over to see. I don't understand the process in detail because I haven't read enough about it, but check out the official site linked below to learn more.

See dead guy playing chess.


Obviously, there is a gross out factor for many, as was obvious when our Telegraph photographer came back from shooting the media sneak preview there. It sparked my curiosity. 

The P-D did a story titled, "Science or Sideshow." I'll be the first to admit, I'd want to see it because of the gross out factor, but there's a part of me that knows this is the chance of a lifetime for a girl who already graduated from college and has no aspirations to go back for a profession in the medical or science field. Or for anyone else who has just under $20 and a stomach that can handle it. You can see what the muscles and parts of our bodies do in certain positions and during or after certain activities. 

I hear there's also a smoker's lung -- a real one, not just the model -- and visitors have been impacted so that they left their cigarettes behind when leaving the museum.

Learn more:
St. Louis Science Center - See the exhibit through March
Alton Telegraph video (coming soon)

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