Body Worlds and the Brain is, to me, the perfect intersection of art and science. To sum it up in a sentence it is essentially human bodies preserved by a patented process called Plastination and displayed to teach the public, in a somewhat unorthodox and thoughtful way, all about how our bodies work. The fact that this preservation process which was created in 1977 by a physician (Gunther Von Hagens) in order to preserve specimens for anatomy courses has sparked one of the world's most engaged public exhibits ever, traveling to galleries and science centres like Science World and being exposed to tens of millions of people around the world, is such an awesome thing. We are incredibly lucky to have Body Worlds come back to Vancouver and though walking through this exhibit may make some uneasy, for most it fills us with wonder and appreciation for our own bodies.
It's on for a limited time at Science World at Telus World of Science and is ending shortly after the winter break. An insider's tip is that you might want to visit ASAP to have the best possible visitor experience and beat the winter break out-of-school crowds!
This is the second of a few posts I'll be sharing highlighting some things that I learned/appreciated at the exhibit. While Ronald Reagan may not have been the best U.S. president (in fact he's looked back on by some as one of it's worst), there's a letter from him in the exhibit from when he found out he had alzheimer's disease and decided to let the American people know in order raise awareness for the cause/study/research. That's a pretty awesome move.
Oh, and next to the letter is obviously a real human brain that's been ravaged by the disease and then preserved using the patented plastination process.
Learn all about the exhibit at ScienceWorld.ca/BodyWorlds
