The beauty of our body

Sunday we headed to the California Science Museum to look at the Body Worlds 3 exhibition, this is a touring exhibit which showcases the human body in a unique way. Using “plastination” a technique where the actual tissue or organ is impregnated with polymer, positioned and hardened to stabilize it in its form. This allows the viewer to actually see the body in action without the obscurence of skin and fatty tissues. You can get a better understanding of this process here.

It’s a fascinating way to study the human body and if you’ve ever been interested in anatomy or physiology or have ever been injured or broken a bone you can get up close and personal to it. Endurance Planet's Kevin Patrick talks about this exhibit here. In addition to the usual skeletal presentation, something that we are quite familiar with, many functional areas of the body are presented including the intestinal, vascular and sensory and if you had ever considered retreating to the couch with nothing but a bag of cheesy puffs and a coke there is a complete sectional from head to toe of an obese women. Many off the exhibits are posed doing sports or activities, walking, gymnastics, dancing etc so you can really see the mechanics of the musculature and view the beauty and complexity of the human body from the inside out.

Currently there are four exhibitions around the world; Baltimore, Milwaukee and Los Angeles in North America and Manchester in England. I highly recommend that you go if you get the chance.