Body Worlds

We've seen our share of dead bodies recently, but if you all haven't seen or heard of this exhibit you really have to check it out. Bodyworlds.com
A new form of embalming, or rather, what they call plastication of cadavers, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, etc. They have almost every part and cross section of the human body on display in a very tasteful and thought provoking way. Everyone donated their bodies years before, but they showed no names or details of the person's life; strictly science.

This picture of the skate boarder is cool, but doesn't do the intricacies of the work justice. The coolest thing that i hadn't seen before were the ears fully attached to the bodies, all the cartilage carefully preserved. They had a little pedestal covered in black velvet with the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup bones of the inner ear! so tiny and aptly named.

They also had a display of embryos. I cant even explain how overwhelming it was to look at these tiny flecks of human life suspended in fluid, encased in plastic. I could not believe how small they were at 3 weeks, 5 weeks and then to see the amazing growth from day to day, the beginning of week 5 to the end is so drastically different. And then at 9 weeks you can see the fingers and eyes and everything. I kept looking around to find the pro-lifers hiding behind the pillars, ready to overhear someone saying, "this is why abortion......", but i saw nothing but slightly watery eyes (through my own that is), nothing but geriatrics and seven year olds alike in complete awe of human life, in complete gratitude for the mothers, babies and humans that shared their flesh with us. This was awesome.

Highly recommend it to everyone who can get to it. There were nurses and docs and smokers all staring at the same emphysema ridden lungs. kind of wild. do it.