The Bodies Exhibition

While we were in New York we saw the Bodies Exhibition advertised and Louise really wanted to go. Real human bodies are immersed in acetone, which removes the water, then they are placed in a large bath of silicon in a vacuum chamber. The acetone vapourises and the silicon replaces it, hardens and preserves the body. It sounds a bit gross but it is really informative (check out www.bodiestheexhibition.com/bodies.html) Time ran out in New York so we were pleased to see that it was showing in London’s Earls Court Exhibition Centre.

It was interesting to see muscles separated from bone, fat etc. It made me think about sports injuries –knees, arms etc that my friends have had and how if affects the body eg when I did my Achilles you could see the other connected muscles it affected. It had a hip replacement shown and a metal rod in a broken arm. It was good to see how everything was connected, muscles, stomach, heart, liver. The exhibition also showed disease-affected parts of the body (eg lung cancer) so you could compare it to a normal part. The brain affected by stroke was interesting too. There was a box next to the diseased lung for people to put their cigarettes in and it was quite full. If I were a smoker, I would have chucked my smokes in there too! Louise liked the displays showing all the veins and capillaries. It’s astounding to see what a huge networked array of veins we have. The little 2 week embryos were interesting too.

In case you are wondering where the bodies come from, in China if a body is not claimed within 30 days it belongs to the State and these unfortunate people became science specimens.

There was a peculiar smell their and Louise found it slightly nauseating but it was still really interesting and well worth the visit.