Body Worlds 3...

! WARNING ! The following post contains extremely graphic pictures

A couple of weekends ago AK and I managed to take some time on a weekend to go to the BodyWorlds 3 Exhibition at the Telus World of Science (formerly: Science World). I had heard about the exhibition on the radio... many other people had seen the adverts on the side/backs of the busses around town or seen spots on the news.

The first time that I had ever heard of the plastination process was actually awhile back. I can't recall what show I was watching, but it was sometime in the mid 90s. Since then I had been fascinated but never thought the show would make it into Vancouver. Actually, I wasn't even aware that they were touring.

AK and I headed out to Science World on a Saturday. When we got there we caught a glimpse of the lineup (this was around 1:30-2pm) it was ridiculous. Aside from the lineup trying to find parking was near impossible. We ended up going to the driving range that day :P... And I'm pretty sure that I pulled a muscle in my back O.o But that's a story for another time. I called another one of my friends that day (KL) and he mentioned that he was also wanting to go to the show. He pointed out something that we should have done before we headed out to the show... pre-purchasing tickets online!!!


After golfing I went home and did some research :) Buying the tickets online was easy enough, so I made a purchase and we tried again the next day (Sunday). The lineup was no shorter than the day before (surprise, surprise) but this time we came prepared. I walked over to the far side of the line and saw the pre-purchase line :D There was no one there! Soooo... if you are planning on going to the show my advice to you is to prepurchase your tickets online!

Our package included:
Entrance to ScienceWorld
Entrance to Bodyworlds exhibition
Entrance to 'The Human Body' Omnimax show.
Total: $30

For another $5 we could have had the Audio tour... which is one of those things that you walk around with and dial in which display you're standing at. I'm pretty sure it just reads to you what you can read yourself. anyway, I didn't think it was necessary so I opted out... AK didn't have a choice because I bought the tickets :p

We entered and then made our way upstairs to the Exhibition entrance. The rest of Science World is mainly Kid's stuff so we didn't bother checking out those displays... I'd seen most of them before.

There was a lineup for Bodyworlds and they were letting people in at set intervals; roughly every 15 minutes. I was excited to be going in, I had my camera ready, etc... then the lady checking tickets had to go rain on my parade and tell me that we were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibition :( Ah well. Everyone else seemed pretty excited too. The recommended time to go through the exhibition is at least 1hr. I made sure we had 2 hrs before the Omnimax show because I knew that I'd be taking my time, reading every word that was written and carefully examining all the displays. In case you're wondering all the displays are made using real cadavers. Many people think that they are just very elaborate mannequins, nope, it's the real deal. For this reason the exhibition has also generated much controversy. It's all a matter of personal opinion.

I could go on-and-on about the exhibition but I'll try to keep it brief. You can, of course, look up other (more professional) reviews and articles. After entry into the exhibition there were a few cases with bones/cross-sections a number of them exhibiting disorders such as arthritis. Not far from the first glass displays is the first of many full-body plastinates. It's amazing the amount of time they must have invested in preparing each of these exhibits. The skin has been stripped off all the bodies exposing the tissue and muscle underneath. There were a couple that showed the joints in the hips, knees, jaws... the interesting thing about those ones were that the joints had been replaced with artificials. I wish I were allowed to take pictures :(


The Horse and Rider is an exhibit that I was hoping to see but was not there.
Further into the exhibit there are a couple of cases that contained specimens composed entirely of blood vessels (arteries & veins). That was trippy. There was a fully-formed rooster composed entirely of vessels. Towards the end they had a cross-section of an obese man. The cross-sections are about 3mm thick. Thin enough for you to be able to see right through and see where the fat deposits were. Then at the very end is the room with fetuses. There was an alternate route for those who would rather not see it. I found that 2 hrs was a good amount of time for us to get through the whole exhibition although, personally, I could have spent all day there. We strolled through the little souvenir shop at the end where I picked up a DVD and a book (~$60) a little on the expensive side, but meh... I like reading about wierd stuff.

After that we, both starving, went to watch 'The Human Body'. It was not a bad film, but nothing new. AK fell asleep partway through :D bugger... I paid for his tickets too!

If the Body World Exhibition ever stops into your City I recommend you go check it out. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience and its educational merit is invaluable.