Body Worlds Exhibition

Yesterday I went to the Body Worlds Exhibition in San Jose and was amazed. Since my anatomy and physiology days in college I have been fascinated with the human body. This exhibit was a millon times better than my discecting anatomy days. Body Worlds is the first anatomical exhibition of perserved human bodies. Focus is the education of the human body, it's functions, diseases and physical changes. The preservation of the deceased body donations uses a process called plastination. Here it is explained by the Body Worlds web site:

The Method of Plastination
Plastination is a relatively simple process
designed to preserve the body for educational and instructional purposes.
Plastination, like many revolutionary inventions, is simple in
concept:

1. Embalming and Anatomical Dissection
The first step of the process involves halting decay by pumping formalin into
the body through the arteries. Formalin kills all bacteria and chemically stops the
decay of tissue. Using dissection tools, the skin, fatty and connective tissues are removed in order to prepare the individual anatomical structures.

2.
Removal of Body Fat and Water
In the first step, the body water and soluble fats are dissolved from the body by placing it into a solvent bath (e.g., an acetone bath).

3. Forced Impregnation
This second exchange process is the central step in Plastination. During forced impregnation a reactive polymer, e.g., silicone rubber, replaces the acetone. To achieve this, the specimen is immersed in a polymer solution and placed in vacuum
chamber. The vacuum removes the acetone from the specimen and helps the
polymer to penetrate every last cell.

4. Positioning
After vacuum impregnation, the body is positioned as desired. Every single anatomical structure is properly aligned and fixed with the help of wires, needles,
clamps, and foam blocks.

5. Curing (Hardening)
In the final step, the specimen is hardened. Depending on the polymer used, this is done with gas, light, or heat. Dissection and Plastination of an entire body requires
about 1,500 working hours and normally takes about one year to complete.


Some of my favorite parts of the exhibit were of the Skate Boarder, the
artificial joints and implants, the arm with only the blood vessels to the
smallest of the capillaries, the exhibit called the Ponderer, the display of
smoker's and non-smokers lungs, the fetal exhibit, the brain that had been
affected by Alzheimer's Disease and the letter from President Reagan to the
American people, and the display of the human body into layers. The more I
study the human body and am exposed to incredible things like Body Worlds,
my heart and mind is pointed to God and His awesome incredible creative
ability. Everything is so precise and purposeful.

I greatly would recommend this exhibition for you to go and see. The exhibition in San Jose closes this weekend, but I do know that there is one opening in Los Angeles in March running through September. I might even go and see the one in LA. Here are a few pictures of some of the things I saw.