I Saw Dead People

I just got back from OMSI's Body Works 3 exhibit, and it was the most impressive thing I've seen since the Egypt exhibit at the Portland Art Museum!

The Body Works exhibit uses actual cadavers that have been preserved using a brand new technique called plastination. It prevents the bodies from decomposing and even from smelling. Plastination also has to ability to "freeze" bodies into incredible positions, allowing visitors to see a 180-degree view of the body, and also allowing the exhibitors to accent the muscles that they want to.

To show whole bodies, they often harden them with gases to make them displayable. You were able to see actual bodies up close and personal, like no textbook could possibly show you, and no 3-D model could possibly portray. In addition to whole bodies, they had individual organs, letting you see healthy ones right next to unhealthy ones (for example, a smoker's lungs next to a non-smoker's). They were also able to show configurations of blood vessels, and all the intricate details that I'd never seen before (look at the arm on the left). All in all a very dramatic exhibit, with up close and personal, dramatic visual aids.

I don't think you'll have to worry about getting grossed out by dead bodies, they had a certain "fakeness" to them because they weren't the oozy, lifeless, creepy dead beings that we usually picture; this was science at its best! I hope you get a chance to go before it leaves OMSI!










OMSI
Body Worlds 3