On Thursday eve the Bubby and me visited Gunther von Hagens’ Bodyworlds.
http://www.bodyworlds.com/en.html
I wasn’t sure how I would react to looking at dead bodies but it turned out to be very informative and fascinating. One woman fainted, twice! I think (I hope) they carried her out after the second time, she fainted in the very beginning.
It started with the embryo – from 1 week old, 4 weeks old … up to 7, 8, 9 months old babies. It’s amazing how much a baby still grows in the last two months!
Then we looked at a real skeleton, followed by different bones and body parts. The lung is huge, the brain small, the female body parts are tiny. The human heart is not red 😉 It’s the “year of the lung” so a lot of sick lungs like smoker’s lung, lung cancer, tuberculosis were shown.
The liver is very prone to metastases because of its strong blood circulation.
We saw the heart after a heart attack, the brain after a stroke, dark skin cancer (it’s so dangerous because it goes through your skin into the body and nets up with all the organs), arthrosis, artificial body parts (artificial hip joint, artificial heart valves, femoral fracture…), the digestive tract with a gastric ulcer, the muscles, veins and arteries… everything actually.
Last but not least a huge brown bear (which was actually only a medium sized bear) showing its muscles.
Very fascinating, it’s amazing how some people just take their body, the body that keeps them alive for decades, for granted and ruin it with terrible eating habits, drugs and too much alcohol. It’s also amazing how so many people just don’t care about their body and what it achieves, how it’s its own universe – unbelievable!
It’s not “gross” to go to that exhibition, it is the human body you are seeing. Although I did have an unpleasant feeling in my tummy in the beginning, wasn’t sure if it was just me being hungry or me knowing I’m looking at someone who was alive once.