Sunday @ The Museum of Science

Last time Sam and I went to the Museum of Science, we saw the Star Wars exhibit (really cool!). This time we decided to get an anatomy lesson and went to see their Body Worlds 2 exhibit. I really enjoyed reading the bits of philosophy they had on banners throughout--philosophy, of course, relating to the impermanence of the body and death. Regardless of how fascinating it was--the process of plastination, the anatomy lessons, the flayed and butterflied bodies--I couldn't stop wondering how many people passed out while taking it all in. One of the compounding elements to this problem, I thought, would be the fact that it's been cold in Boston recently (no shit?) and it's really warm in the exhibit hall. So, you have all these people, wearing heavy winter coats, packed like sardines in a room of dissected, plastinated bodies. Seems ripe for a fit of fainting, wouldn't you think? Well, I didn't get the pleasure of seeing anyone pass out and fall into a case full of preserved gonads, but I did ask one of the staff from the exhibit how many people passed out while viewing all this. Guess how many? Only 4 or 5 a week, she said. That's 5 people out of, say, 8000 people who view it (a rough estimate). So what does that imply? Well, I've got a couple of preliminary thoughts about it. First, I don't think my mom would have let me see something like this until I was old enough to understand it. But there were so many children there that they accounted for at least a fourth of the people, possibly a third, as a lot of school groups go to it during the week. Also, this is in Boston, so there's a lot of people who work in hospitals or are training to work in one--so they're used to it, or should be. But to go further, is it perhaps that our media overload has something to do with it? I mean, fifty years ago this guy would have been considered to have an abberant personality. Now it's difficult to imagine something we don't have access to hearing or seeing. But I just wanted to touch on that . . . .

After taking a trip through the exhibit, Sam and I went to see something a little more relaxing--the butterfly garden in the Museum. Sam took some pictures, most of which didn't turn out, but I thought I'd post these as well. It was a really small room but it was filled with butterflies.