Body Worlds III

The St Louis Science Center recently hosted Dr Gunther von Hagens' Body Words III exhibition. This uses real, donated, preserved human (& other species) bodies that have been preserved using 'Plastination', which is a method of specimen preservation invented by Dr von Hagens in 1977.

The exhibition caused some controversy when it first arrived in St Louis with opinion divided as to whether younger people should see it since 'everything' is on display & the way that the bodies have been displayed could be disconcerting. Personally, I didn't see what all the fuss was about since I thought that the aim of the exhibition to educate the public about the inner workings of the human body & show the effects of poor health, good health, & lifestyle choices were important. It is not often that you can see how doing certain things affects your body. For example, there were slices though a person that was overweight (the display also included a synopsis of how & why the person died young), & the lungs of a smoker & non-smoker laid side by side showing the massive difference in condition. There were also displays of people that had needed replacement parts (e.g. hip joints) & that had been patched up with nuts, bolts, & plates after being in an accident.

There were also some animals on display (including a Camel & calf) & in a screened off area near the end of the exhibition a number of Human Embryos & Foetuses showing how Humans develop in the womb. This was fascinating but also quite sad at the same time because, obviously, none of the preserved bodies had managed to survive. All deaths were natural & I guess in an odd sort of way all the exhibits will now 'live' forever.

One of the really cool things that we got to do was to hold some preserved organs, including a kidney & liver. It was really surprising to still be able to feel the difference in texture after preservation & that these were once functioning items within a living human being!

After leaving the exhibition we had a look around the other areas of the Science Center that we hadn't seen during previous visits. We watched a really cool plastics demo where the properties of plastics were explained & various 'experiments' were conducted to show how this material can behave, & we also had a go on most of the hands-on exhibits that included common optical illusions & other things to show how the brain can be 'confused'. All good fun!
Body Words III picture courtesy KMOV