Body Worlds

[Partial]

There are a few days left and if you live in Milwaukee or the surrounding cities I recommend going and taking a look if you've got some free time.

I went last week and it was a really cool display at the museum.

Has anybody else checked it out?

[Tyrone Bigguns]

Yes. It was in Phx i believe last year.

[LEWCWA]

Saw it in Dallas last year, very cool.

[falco]

i hated it - there was something just a little too creepy about it

[Patler]

I've gone twice, and spent hours at it each time.

I found it very intriguing to get the book, study about the technique and how it has developed and changed; and then go back and compare some of the earliest prepared displays to the more recently prepared ones.

[Tarlam!]

That technik was designed on my doorstep in Heidelberg. Gunther von Hagens, the prof that doe it is a hugely disputed figure. When he has displyas here in Germany, there's always protests etc.

He has a permanent exhibition 20 minutes fom my house. Ive never been....

[Patler]

That technik was designed on my doorstep in Heidelberg. Gunther von Hagens, the prof that doe it is a hugely disputed figure. When he has displyas here in Germany, there's always protests etc.

He has a permanent exhibition 20 minutes fom my house. Ive never been....

There was (is?) a "competing" display in the US from another foreign group that apparently obtained cadavers from China. It was closed (or threatened to be closed) in several cities for not being able to produce the necessary consent documentations from the individuals whose cadavers were used.

Supposedly von Hagens as been extremely thorough in obtaining the necessary informed consents.

The second time I went, I accompanied a relative and several friends who were in Med School. While all had spent semesters already dissecting cadavers in their labs, they were absolutely enthralled by the precision and detail of the displays. They each expressed amazement at how much it helped them, so much better than their own more hurried dissections and more realistic than pictures or synthetic displays.

If the displays were less public, and used only for teaching purposes, I doubt anyone would complain. I can understand and sympathize with those who object to the commercialism of it, and find it rather ghoulish. I can understand the objections to the poses being in everyday activities rather than generic. On the other hand, I have encountered so many non-medical people who found it to be so extremely informative that I think it has value to a very broad based audience. Nothing wrong with understanding our bodies better.

[Harlan Huckleby]

i hated it - there was something just a little too creepy about it

I've gone twice, and spent hours at it each time.

[oregonpackfan]

That display was also here in Portland, OR. I found it fascinating.

Later, I took my 13 year old to the display. One of the most interesting centers was a side-by-side display of a lung from a non-smoking person and a lung from a smoker.

The non-smoker's lung was a healthy pink color. The smoker's lung was charcoal gray. If anything could more profoundly teach the directive, "Don't smoke!" to my 13 year old, that display had to be it.

[Harlan Huckleby]

I keep getting confused by the "Body Worlds" thread and Skinbasket's polls on "The Perfect Human"

Were any of the bodies at Body World hot?

[texaspackerbacker]

You mean the Chicoms couldn't get cadavers to sign consent forms? They should have hired Mayor Daley as a consultant.

I saw the exhibit in Oklahoma City--I think the legit one. It was OK. I think I could have learned just as much from pictures and diagrams, though.