I was never what you would call a science geek. Frankly, science and I had a largely adversarial relationship growing up, which required tutoring, and a constant forced snap to focus for my daydreaming-inclined mind.
I was—surprise surprise—an advanced English nerd, opting instead to lose myself in the lush pages of Shakespeare and the perfectly written heroines of Jane Austen.
Needless to say, I was a little surprised to find myself drawn to the Body Worlds exhibit at the Telus World of Science. Coupled with math, biology was a core subject nemesis, with my brain more suited to composing poetry than dissection.
That being said, last Friday saw a friend and I take advantage of a Stampede lull at any venue that wasn’t serving watered down beer, and headed to check it out.
For those unfamiliar, the touring exhibition features more than 200 actual human specimens and bodies, amazingly preserved by removing all bodily fluids, and kind of vacuum sealing them with certain resins, and curing them with gas and light. (Ok, so I totally just sounded like I knew what I was talking about, right?)
The organ and tissue specimens are fascinating (the actual set of diseased lungs come to mind as the most effective anti-smoking ad I’ve ever seen), but the stars of the show are the complete human bodies, resplendent in the complexity that is the human body itself.
The bodies displayed in a variety of stages and frozen movements are simply awe-inspiring. It’s hard not to be taken aback a little at first; especially knowing these people had lives of their own before donating their bodies for our scientific growth.
While we spent about 45 minutes walking, gazing, and learning (yes, I learned a few things!), the science-apt mind could get lost for hours consuming all the fascinating images and factoids.
For me, it was simply enough to marvel at the fact that science had actually grabbed my attention. (Without the worry of a bad grade at the end.)
*Body Worlds runs through September 6 at Telus World of Science.