where: telus world of science when: runs until september 6, 2010

of course when it is most crucial that i study that is when i am most inspired to go out and do things. this weekend (additionally to studying) i went to see the body worlds exhibit at the telus world of science. i was grossed out and awed. this exhibit shows us how our bodies work, in real life, not on some 2-d diagram in a biology textbook, which is also the attraction in that you don’t have to learn about it if you don’t want to, but what a learning experience it is. they create these bodies by replacing the bodily fluids, after a natural (emphasis on natural) death with plastic, calling the process plastination. anyone can donate their body to the institute for no fee, but shipping and handling (but fear not, the advantage, they say, is that you avoid the costs of a real funeral-real swell). fittingly i also saw some people from my figure drawing class there, reminding me that i should also be paying attention to the artistic perspective of these bodies as well as the scientific. but i could not take my eyes off these displays for what they were. they had displayed a brain with alzheimer’s disease and a brain after a hemorrhage, they had cancerous hearts and livers, they had a fully separated digestive tract on display there, the bodies were cut down and across and in pieces to show every angle of the human body. it was fascinating to see all these things. and most of all it was excellent inspiration for a better living. if anything this exhibit taught me how fragile the human body is, and the fact that we function and do some of the things we do on daily basis and put our bodies through so much stress and we get to live for as long as we do is a miracle all in itself. i saw what a clogged artery looks like, and i have high cholesterol so i can say with certainty that i am laying off cheese for life. they also inform you about the fragility and deterioration your brain goes through with age, and how beneficial it is to keep your brain always exercised and active to prevent cells from dying, how education (and not necessarily the academic kind) can help prevent all those things. how important sleep is, and how lack of it can cause obesity and how harmful stress is to your body. all these things which we should all know and remember from school, but somehow we forget, it was a wonderful wake-up call. i am so glad i paid the hefty $27 to get in, even though some of the people that came with me would not agree. (which reminds me, the exhibit came to warsaw not long ago, and the curious and forward thinking poles gave them the boot. they wanted to set up a lab in poland, bring in money and progress to the country and they were refused, i am embarrassed)