Shrink Wrapped Cadavers

That’s what my chef friend, Fernando, from Michigan calls the “Bodies Worlds” exhibit we went to see at the Michigan Science Center yesterday. I remember back when the exhibit visited Vancouver Science World back in 2006 and again 2010. It was pretty controversial if I remember correctly. Even the Archdiocese of Vancouver weighed in (http://www.rcav.org/media/bodyworlds/).

Maybe it isn’t something that would appeal to the squeamish, but really, it wasn’t that bad. The first thing I noticed was that the plastination process used to preserve the bodies was nothing like shrink wrap. Shrink wrap means actually covered in plastic. These bodies definitely were NOT! Plastinatio, invented in 1977 by a guy called Dr. Gunther von Hagens, is a method of preserving anatomical specimens by extracting all bodily fluids and soluble fat from the specimens and replacing the fluids and fat with resins, then curing them with light, heat, and gasses. It uses a vacuum forced impregnation process (http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/exhibitions/questions_answers.html?edit#5). Once the process is completed the specimens are rigid and permanently in whatever pose they were in at the time. Apparently there is actually an Institute of Plastination with over 13,000 donors on their roster. So if you are really interesting in achieving a weird kind of immortality, here is where you can go to find out more information (http://www.bodyworlds.com/en/institute_for_plastination/mission_objectives.html).

I have to note that these specimens were meticulously dissected—no hack jobs here. It was a fascinating peek beneath our skin. We aren’t all colorful the way the anatomy textbooks at school present, but more of a blandish fleshy pinkish color (at least the healthy parts).  I found the detailed extractions of the kidneys, intestines, heart and lungs to be particularly insightful. By the way, the lungs are a lot smaller and a lot closer to your mouth that most text books show, and the tongue is a lot bigger and goes deep in the back of your throat, where it meets the larynx. Another surprise for me was that men’s testicles actually start from above the penis itself, even though on the outside they are positioned below the penis on the outside. Another interesting discovery was that the heart isn’t just an empty chamber that fills up and pushes out blood. It is filled with spongy-like fibers. Its walls are very thick and it looks almost like it soaks up blood into the sponge-like fibers as much as the open chamber like part does.

This exhibit was tasteful, informative, and covered every aspect of the human body from nerves to veins to the heart, of which there were many views. My favorites were the guy on the Harley Davidson and the exhibit where they had sliced the body at 1 inch intervals from top to bottom in what seemed to be one fell slice. Visiting Bodies Worlds was definitely worth the drive into Detroit; even my chef friend thought it was pretty cool.