Impressions from Bodies The Exhibition

Spent some time downtown with friends Mike and Christine yesterday with plans for dinner after checking out the Bodies The Exhibition show. We met at the mall downtown (Indianapolis) and as we walked across the street we could smell the aroma coming from The Weber Grill restaurant. Mike pointed out that we'd be eating there once we experienced Bodies. Just so happens The Weber Grill is in the same building as Bodies, so as we entered the exhibit the aroma stayed with us and was, in fact, present throughout the building. (The exhibit is one floor below street level and the restaurant is at ground level; separate entrances.) 

The exhibit is made up of a series of partition-divided rooms, each with separate focus. The rooms are very dark, with displays lit separately. Signs indicating the focus welcome you at the entrance of each room (circulatory system, nervous system, digestive system, etc.). Most of the displays are Plexiglas cases or containers on a pedestal. 

I enjoyed learning the processes used to preserve the various areas of the human body. One most interesting was the circulatory system. Some type of fluid was introduced into the system, then the remainder of the body was "removed," leaving only the veins and arteries intact. On the creepy side was an entire human skin displayed inside a case. Wow! Speaking of skin, mine must be pretty thick because I did not think of these displays as "human" though obviously they are. We spent about an hour and a half exploring the dozen or so separate rooms, though one could study for days everything that was offered. This would be great for a high school biology or anatomy class - much better than studying earthworms and fetal pigs. 

In the last room, we were invited to handle a human brain and / or a Baboon's brain. I chose to handle the human's. It was a little heavier than I thought it would be . . . 

One last thought. I attended a health clinic of some kind when I was in first or second grade where a healthy human lung and a smoker's lung were displayed side by side. That same display was at this exhibit! < / sarcasm > Also displayed at Bodies was a number of other diseased organs, all kinds of them.