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BodyWorlds (part two)
- Sep 10, 2009 at 4:14 PM
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When I wrote my original post on BodyWorlds, I did not expect to write a part two. This changed the second I walked into the exhibit! YES, I GOT TO GO!!!! A friend of mine presented me with a FREE ticket, so I took a half day from work and enjoyed my FIRST-EVER science museum visit sans children, which enabled me to walk liesurely and look at the displays without the impact of kid-boredom and pleas to go to the children's floor. Sure, I only had two hours before I had to relieve my husband of the children so he could go to school, but it was worth it! I could spend many more hours looking and learning, and I hope to do so in the future, if they ever bring in another one of this 3 part series. The exhibit I saw was BodyWorlds and the Story of the Heart.
Here are my thoughts, which I scribbled on a paper as I walked through. This is the list of things I wanted to explore in more detail, or just wanted to remember to tell you!
- The plastinates (real human bodies that have undergone plastination - see my first post for details), when cut through the muscles, reveals how thick some muscles really are. One section I noticed in the thigh, showed muscles 3 inches thick. This is really incredible to see, particularly because every single one is arranged in a clear box so it is visible from every side.
- The interior of the skull is not completely hollow. It has a bone plate that runs across the top section, jutting into the interior. So it appears that when the brain is inside, this bone keeps it in the right place, without sloshing around or turning in the slightest way. I always wondered if soft tissue was enough to keep the brain in position, and now I see there is bone doing that job!
- Lance Armstrong has a larger heart than almost anyone, due to his workouts. The more you work your heart and other muscles, the stronger and larger they get. The normal size range for a human heart is fist-sized to double that!
- The diaphragm is really high in the chest. When my music teacher in grade school taught us about using the diaphragm to really use the lungs when singing, she pointed so low, near her navel, and now I see how wrong she was. It appears to be right under my breasts, inside the ribcage somewhat. This really surprised me, because having it so high in the chest always showed how small the lungs are in coparison to the total abdomen. I have seen real lungs before, but always separated from the body, so seeing them together gave me a better idea of their size.
- The body as a whole is compacted. I already knew this, but to see it, in cross sections and in plastinate pull-opens really brings this fact to life. There is NO extra room in the body; every inch of space is being used for something. This immediately made me think of how I felt during pregnancy, after I saw a drawing of how the woman's internal organs are squished by the enlarging uterus. I also thought about how this organ proximity relates to disease and injury - in the sense that disease can spread through orans, and on injury such as gunshot can directly affect a variety of organs and systems in a single location.
- The body slices from an obese man showed how fat deposits not only under the skin, but also in between internal organs. Due to the compact nature of the human body, this deposition of fat iternally leads to issues with internal pressure placed on vital organs, such as the heart and lungs. This is in addition to the physical discomfort of carrying around large amounts of extra weight, and the extra workload placed on the heart.
- The navel (belly button) was kept visible on most of the plastinates. the artist often cut around certain features, such as the eyebrows, hair and navel when removing tissue. I made a point to look into the abdominal cavity on any plastinate that would give a chance to see where the navel leads. This is a question that I have had in my mind for years, even though I suspected the answer (nowhere). The abdominal wall from the inside was always sealed as if there was never an opening there. I did some internet searching when I got home and it turns out the abdominal wall DOES close up there, and the blood vessels which once passed into the baby's vasculature also close up and actually disintegrate completely, leaving no trace.
- It is possible to inflict so much stress on your heart through grief, that you actually die from Broken Heart Syndrome. It seems really sad, but also really interesting that our minds play such a strong role in our physical state.
- The vascular system reaches just about every point in the body. I heard once, in my studies, that a capillary must be without 10 cells distance in order to support life. Judging from the plastinates I saw, this must be true, or really close to it. The human was lying down, suspended by thin wires so it would be visible from all sides. The system of bllod vessels are injcted with red plastic, and once hard, they chip away everything else, leaving a 3D cast of the vasculature. Amazing. I came back and looked at this one a few times, making note of the dense vessles, almost making a mossy lawn, covering the face, lung and penis. Makes sense, doesn't it? I found it more interesting that the front of the shin and the top of the head were nearly void of vessels. These are two areas were the bone is covered by a thin layer of fat cells and the skin, so I imagine the vasculature is in the skiin, which has been stripped away. In addition to the human, I was able to see a lamb and a chicken. Despite the fact everything but the vessles is stripped away, it is VERY obvious what each animal is by the shape. Really really cool. Even the part where I leaned against the table holding the chicken (briefly), and it shook a little, which startled me. LOL
- Your stomach is NOT that big. The stomach on an average human is slightly larger that 2 fists. Remember that the next time you sit down to a gigantic meal. Your stomach is not made to ingest a meal 4 times its size; it can do this because it has been stretched out due to habitually overeating. It seems a bowl of cereal, a glass of orange juice and a banana will fit in there snug.
- I saw the heart of a bull, which is about 5 pounds. This thing was the size of a large cantelope!! The aorta was bigger than the diameter of a garden hose, very thick and smooth. WOW.
- In the hips, the ball and socket joints are incredibly well-matched. Of course I expected them to be, but I did not expect the interior of the socket to be so smooth, as if molded perfectly, then polished. It was completely smooth, and I find it incredible to imagine how it got that way through the development process.
- The poses the body were placed into were unique, and chosen in some cases for artist appeal, as well as to show interior structures through the pull-aways. My favorite human pose was the man holding his organs on his head, since it was unexpected, creative, and I got to view the abdominal cavity empty. I also saw various sports poses, such the skier, the archer and a female gymnist.
- The female plastinates always kept their breast tissue, but the internal structures were never visible. There was a separate display with sexual organs (I believe a translational quirk of 'reproductive organs'), including normal and cancerous breast tissue. I thought breat tissue and mammary glands were part of the endocrine system, but upon further study, it seems they are reproductive organs. Another new tidbit I learned yesterday!
- The camel. I knew this exhibit also included an animal plastinate, but I was not expecting the giant, seemingly three headed camel I found! The adult camel, with baby standing along side, was towering overhead. It's head and neck was sliced in three section, one posed up, one center, and one posed down, making it appear to have 3 heads. Even the teeth were smoothly sliced through. I saw two empty humps, used for water storage, the stomachs and digestive system (ruminant), and bone size. This was a remarkable plastinate!! A welcomed surprise!!
- There was a small set of fetal bodies covering pregnancy. I was not very impressed by the embryos covering weeks 5-20 since I have seen these many times during my college career. I have also seen nearly 30 different species and their similarities are remarkable! If you have never seen these human-animal comparisons before, look into human and animal embryology or comparative biology. I will add it to my list of possible future posts, as well. Anyway, the plastinates in the range of 21-40 weeks really struck me. I have often read the post describing preemies and their medical hardships,understanding these babies are very small. Yesterday standing in front of a 21 week old baby, who had died decades ago and been preserved for medical study, was an emotional experience for me. I could not image that being my baby, as it was someone's baby, lost, having died and been taken from her. For the first time I could almost FEEL the tiny size of this little, vulnerable person. I seriously wanted to reach out and hold her in my arms.
Having seen and learned all of this, what was missing? I would have liked to see pregnancy, particularly to see the squished organs and the size of an enlarged uterus. I would like to see an obese plastinate, not just a body slice, to really see the effets of the fat on the body. I would like to see more animals, particularly large ones since their structure is so different from, yet so similar to ours. I would like to see abnormal bodies, such as conjoined twins or severe osteoporosis, or Down's Syndrome. Of course I rwalize for these things to happen, people have to die and be willing to have themselves plastinated in the name of science/medicine. I would do it for myself, but I know my husband would not want me to do it, so I won't. Anyone else interested in donating? What would you like to see?
Sorry there areno pictures, but photography is not allowed. They do allow sketchers, which would be really cool, if I had the time!
Tonya
AKA sunmoonstars
Comments:
Great review and comments. You could have been a docent for the exhibit! :)
Wow! I had fun with your first journalbut this is great. I have also wondered about the navel. DS was just asking about that this week. He is on a how babies gestate kick lately and that was one of the questions he asked that of course, I couldn't asnwer.
I would love to do something like that, but hubby has already said it would creep him out if he knew I was part of a display somewhere. :-)
GOC - Yay! now you can answer him :)
athistmom you are too kind! you made my day!
Wow. I read each bit slowly, trying to imagine it. How insanely AWESOME. What a way to revolutionize the medical field by having real models to put things in perspective. I would have loved to have joined you, and will make any attempt in the future to attend!
(I always wondered about the belly button thing too.) ;)
When i went it this in Dallas, they did have a pregnant lady with her baby still inside. She was with the babies.
She was very pregnant and i don't remember the exact details but I believe that we were told that she KNEW her and her baby were NOT going to make it, and she donated herself to the exhibit... it was very interesting to see her, and sad at the same time.
Hi,
I would like to say I live near Tampa FL and had the experience this summer to go and see Body world. A must see.And I would love to see some new stuff that you mentioned.And the thing that I admired the most..being a previous smoker ( 2 yrs quit) the black lungs.that should make someone want to quit. I admired the fetuses...wow. I did the same thing. Seeing this and thinking how they were someones baby.but it was a beautiful experience to see them...regardless. And the heart was amazing, and the animals was amazing too. we saw the camel..but we spent about 2 hrs in there....our 17 yr old was def amused with thewhole thing. Im glad that we finally got to take him, and we learned so much about or own bodies. a great experience.
P.S Would love to go back again!
I was fortunate enought to be able to take some of my Honors biology students on a field trip to see the exhibit in Dallas. I was a little nervous at first as to how my 16 year old students would react, but they were awesome and loved it! I was so glad I got to take them there.
I saw the exhibit in Chicago and it was fabulous there as well. Great post!
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