Monday, September 10, 2007

Corpses are fun! And Educational! Just like me...

Saturday night while Kelli was in town(she's back from Eastern Europe but in Utah as of now until the first week of October), we decided to go see the Bodies exhibition in Rosslyn since we were procastinating going all day. The exhibit was educational, fascinating (it's plasticized corpses) and the tiny bit of morbidity made it all that much cooler. Definitely worth the money. I couldn't take pictures inside so here's some pictures I found from google. The exhibit starts out with your bones and joints and then proceeds to show examples of each major system in the body using plasticized corpses (the corpses were unclaimed bodies in China). There was one section which showed fetuses and embryos from a few days to several months that blew my mind as much as any of it. The only time I got a little creeped out was seeing plasticized skin, and that was only because of the amount of times I've watched Silence of the Lambs. Anyway, the exhibit was tasteful, not trying to entertain people at all (like the Spy Museum, which I loathe) and very respectful.

Showing the circulatory system and the veins and arteries in the body
Different cuts of the brain. We didn't see this, but its still fascinating.
We saw a plasticized corpse similar to this one. You can see the muscles, nerves etc.

This picture I took. This would be the bathroom stall. The exhibit is in the building where the newseum used to be and there's actual newspaper headlines posted on the doors of the stalls in this rest room and a great sign with a bunch more. Of them all, this one fits the spirit of the exhibit the best.

9 comments:

brent said...

Eww! That's pretty gross. I honestly can't think of a better way to spend an afternoon.

Shannon said...

That looks so cool. I wish you would have been able to take pictures, I think the fetuses would have been awesome.

Steve said...

Oh, that reminds me of my trip to that museum in St. Petersburg, except there they used REAL bodies, gross!

There is a special coming up on the National Geographic Channel you'll like; it shows all kinds of real life video of our body at work, the first of its kind. I think it premieres in late September.

Unknown said...

That does look cool, and the heads are kind of creepy though. I didn't make it to that exhibit when I was out there, but my sister who is a biology person wanted to go. Plasticized bodies? How do they do that? I'll have to check it out on google.

ADDollhouse said...

I SO want to go to that. MAJORLY. I have been wanting to forever.

Joy said...

Brent) I had a feeling this was right up your alley

Shannon) The fetuses were definitely awesome-in the true meaning of the word. Simply incredible.

Steve-
These are real bodies. In St Petersburg did they use real bodies or here? I'm confused.

I'm actually a casual fan of stuff like this. That, and I don't think I get the national geographic channel, but that sounds pretty cool.

Esperanza-the corpses were unclaimed body from China. Yeah, they are a tiny bit freaky.

Kip-If it ever comes to Utah, you should check it out.

plainoldsarah said...

i think it's cool that unclaimed chinese people (largest population or earth, correct?) are having a moment of fame. even if it's a bit gross - at least it's really cool and valuable educationally.

Unknown said...

I look at these pictures...

and I smell formaldehyde.

Joy said...

Plasticized means no formaldehyde

(huh, that's a rhyme I've never thought about before.)