Recently I was given a $5000 scholarship for 5 months to study a programme of anatomy in the US, so in preparation, I dragged myself out of a Jo Malone Rose Oil infused bath and headed to the Luxor to see Bodies: The Exhibition. The exhibition consists of real human bodies and organs – the human specimens are prepared using a corrosion casting method and blood vessels are injected with (sometimes coloured) polymer than hardened.
Walking through the sections from the Respiratory System through to Reproduction, randomly people asked me anatomical questions. ( I wear black Prada glasses and look like an anatomy geek. Apparently) – “Ma’am, the spine looks fibrous and flexible. Is it possible to snap the spine or do you snap the outer spine?” “If a person has hepatitis or HIV are there consequences for a foetus if they fall pregnant?” This is America, bitches. Litigation. Look it up yourself.
There were preserved hearts who made people squeal like Justin Bieber had just walked in, “OMG this is my favourite section!” I, however, am all about the brain. A particular specimen showed a healthy brain and another a brain that had been affected by a stroke (causing restricted or no blood flow to the brain). The area with no blood flow was black – dead, and looked much like the area of the lungs that blackened from tar in a smokers body.
Speaking of which, I don’t date smokers. I never have and never will and this exhibition confirmed it. There was a preserved lung of a healthy person by one of a smoker. The smoker’s lung was black, dead, infected, killed. I wonder, like other self-inflicted diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes , is it worth it? When you smoke a cigarette you are inhaling tar directly into your lungs. Breathing over time becomes harder, cigarettes stain your nails and your teeth, you stink like a charred body, your breath stinks, you are helping your body create a cancer within itself and on top of this, an average pack of smokes takes 3 hours and 40 minutes off your life. They are also a phenomenally expensive habit – you are paying through the nose to slowly kill yourself. Just buy a noose. It’s quicker and much cheaper.
There is a section of displayed arteries that were Andy Warhol-esque, having been injected with coloured polymer in corals, reds, whites and greens. Other coloured sections such as the pulmonary veins and bronchi looked like coral from the barrier reef and could easily pass as art in a boutique gallery in NYC.
There is a section on babies – a conjoined twin, foetus at different rates of development, a baby’s skull, heart and lungs paired next to adult developed ones. Besides the amazing specimens and whole preserved bodies you learn a lot about Anatomy 101 – such as the fact no cell in the body lies more than a few micrometres from a blood vessel or that the pulse is an artery wall stretching w every heart beat, and human skin is the heaviest of all organs at almost 4kg.
The exhibition is $35 dollars but most Vegas magazines and books will have a $5 off coupon. If you do the survey at the end of the exhibition you will be given a code enabling you to receive 10% off at the gift shop.
Have you been to the exhibition or are you planning to? What do you do in Vegas? (The first two photos are from http://www.luxor.com as photographs are prohibited in the exhibition)
Making Light of Death 