Body Worlds
In the cold glare of the autopsy laboratory the forensic pathologist was doing her job, a job she enjoyed, resecting the thoracic viscera. She put her hands around the heart and gently brought it out of the chest cavity, placing it on the cutting board. Even though it was well into the early morning hours her hands held steady. With careful incisions the heart lay open in sections. She removed tissue slices to be examined under the microscope. This was only the beginning…
If you’ve been thinking of making a career move to Medical Examiner/Coroner, or if you just get a kick from watching the cast on CSI pass body parts around you will want to visit this exhibit at The Tech coming this Fall.
Mercury News (June 6) columnist, Sal Pizarro said, “Tech Museum show likely to disgust all”- and then calling it, “The fascinatingly gross Body Worlds…” I disagree with Sal. If skin can be beautiful, why then can’t a pancreas?
The exhibit of plastinization provides the medical and anthropological communities the opportunity to view the bodies of people who specifically and knowingly donated their bodies for the purpose of educational material. Where else could I, a simple layperson, find a more educational dramatic way to see what makes us tick - arranged in an artful way?
This is not a cheap knockoff, not one of a number of imitation exhibitions around the country that got their bodies from China, where they use unclaimed and unidentified bodies.
Body Worlds won’t be on exhibit in San Jose until this September. So you will have all summer long to psyche yourself, or the kids, up.
More ticket information after the jump.
Tickets and Availability
Members of The Tech have the first opportunity to purchase tickets to BODY WORLDS 2 & The Three Pound Gem, and will enjoy up to a $10 discount on tickets for the exhibit. Tickets go on sale to museum members beginning June 25, and will be available online at http://www.thetech.org/bodyworld/buy_tickets.html, from the ticket office in the museum, or by calling (408) 294-TECH.
Tickets will be available to the general public starting July 2 through the same venues. Ticket prices include general admission to the museum. IMAX movies are sold separately.
All tickets to the exhibit are timed at 15-minute intervals. Exhibit hours will be from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. every day during the four-month run except Christmas Day, with last entry at 7:30 p.m. The Tech Museum of Innovation will be extending its regular hours during BODY WORLDS in order to ensure that visitors can also enjoy the museum’s exhibits and IMAX movies during evening hours.
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My kids went to something like this 2 years ago at the Children’s Discovery Museum. It was icky……but they had a blast!
I’m glad you posted this! I really wanted to see this exhibit when it was far more controversial. I’m not sure my 6 year old will have an appreciation for it, but my teenager will!
This will be the real deal. Make sure to get your tickets early. Dr. Friess, President of The Tech Museum, said they are expecting a good turnout.