Bodyworlds

This weekend I went to see the Body Worlds exhibit that is currently in Salt Lake: Body Worlds 3 and the Story of the Heart. I have to say that I was apprehensive about going, to say the least. Although the concept was interesting to me, the whole dead bodies without skin aspect seemed pretty morbid to me. Before I went I did a great deal of reading about the process by which they preserve the bodies, plastination, which basically involves replacing the lipids and fluids of the body with acetone, turning the body into the consistency of plastic. (The whole thing is bizarre to me.)

When I arrived I was shocked by how many people were waiting in line, especially since the exhibit requires one to select a time of arrival. The lines continued through the entire exhibit, so that looking at each speciman entailed several minutes of waiting while other people blocked the display case. There is almost nothing that annoys me more than viewing exhibits in this type of environment, so that definitely put a damper on my experience. In addition, the venue housing the exhibit here in Utah is a museum that is under construction - this meant that there was little to no air circulation within the building and that there were no walls erected (curtains separated the different parts of the exhibit to guide the flow of visitors) - definitely another bummer considering how expensive the tickets were.

But to focus on the positive aspects of the exhibit, I thought that the most interesting specimens were not the posed bodies themselves (which I still found to be creepy and morbid when I was there), but that organ samples. They had several organs with tumors, as well as organs from smokers, obese people, and persons with hypertension, that were juxtaposed with healthy organs so that one could really observe the difference. Another highlight for me was all of the models of animal and hman bodies made solely out of the circulatory system. It was remarkable to see how small some of the blood vessels in the body are and how close to the surface they are housed.

All in all I would say the exhibit was interesting, extremely overpriced, and very overcrowded. My advice for those who are interested is to try to find a discount coupon and be sure to head there on a weekday!