‘Body Worlds Rx’ exhibit at science center is a literally a slice of life
It’s all about staying healthy right now.
And a new exhibit at the Great Lakes Science Center is all about making healthy choices and the science behind how our body works.
The “Body Worlds Rx” exhibit is not for the timid.
The traveling exhibit that will be in Cleveland through the end of the year lets the curious get an inside view of the human body that were created through more than 100 real human specimens.
You can see a healthy heart or one riddled by heart disease.
There’s a healthy lung next to the real diseased lung from a smoker.
You can even explore how our eating choices in the United States compare to those in other parts of the world.
There are no plastic parts here.
Everything on display is from the cadavers of donated bodies that were willed to be part of the “Body Worlds” exhibit.
Through a process called Plastination, it took some 1,500 hours to preserve each of the specimens, whether it is full body with skin peeled away to show off the muscular structure or everything taken away with the exception of the brain and nervous system.
The painstaking process involves removing all fluids from the body and replacing them with reactive resins and elastomers to preserve specific portions or layers.
The exhibit, free with admission to the science center, is a fascinating journey to better understand and appreciate just how remarkable the human body truly is.
The science center will reopen to the public Wednesday after shutting down during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The science lesson begins at the entrance where guests are screened to ensure they are feeling well and do not have a fever. They must also wear masks inside the science center.
After the science center’s abrupt closing March 12, spokesman Joe Yachanin said, the staff set about to work to come up with a plan for reopening amid a global pandemic.
This was no easy task as the bread and butter of a science center is so-called hands-on learning and exploring.
Levers and switches on some exhibits, Yachanin said, have been replaced by sensors and about 6% of the contraptions have been temporarily removed to ensure social distancing can be maintained.
There will be no tours of the William G. Mather Steamship this summer as the narrow passageways and stairs inside the restored 618-foot Great Lakes freighter would be impossible to maintain social distancing and be troublesome to keep sanitized.
Yachanin said they were fortunate the “Body Worlds Rx” exhibit was already en route to Cleveland when the pandemic forced the shutdown of the museum and pretty much everything else.
Not knowing just when the science center would reopen, curators went ahead and installed the traveling exhibit.
This marks the second time a “Body Worlds” exhibit has been in Northeast Ohio.
The last time it was in Cleveland was in 2005 and some 390,000 guests — a record — visited the science center to see it.
“We are thrilled to bring a ‘Body Worlds’ exhibition back to Cleveland and introduce a whole new audience to this extraordinary experience,” Science Center President and CEO Kirsten Ellenbogen said. “ ‘Body Worlds Rx’ gives an unprecedented look inside the most sophisticated mechanism in the world, the human body.”
It is just as fascinating to watch those guests and science center members who have had a sneak peek of the exhibit, Yachanin said, as some were getting for the first time a view of their own particular ailments like what a knee replacement really looks like.
“I’ve seen guests stand there and say, ‘Oh, my gosh, is that what I actually look like?’ ” he said.
If you go ...
What: “Body Worlds Rx”
Where: Great Lakes Science Center, 601 Erieside Ave., Cleveland
When: Exhibit runs through Jan. 3 and is included with timed advanced tickets to the museum that reopens to the public on Wednesday. Summer hours will be 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
Admission: $13.95 for kids and $16.95 for adults.
For more information or to reserve tickets, visit GreatScience.com
