The Cycle of Life

After our mani-pedicure session, and mulling how to spend the rest of the lazy afternoon... determined to stick to our 2010 resolution to shop less and save more... we decided to visit the Science Centre to check out the Body Worlds exhibition! :P

BODY WORLDS & The Cycle of Life is the latest installment of the groundbreaking anatomical exhibitions by Dr. Gunther von Hagens, and features the human life cycle and aging. The exhibit shows the complexity, resilience, and vulnerability of the human body through anatomical studies of the body in distress, disease, and optimal health.

Visitors are taken on a journey of self discovery, showing the body living through time - at its most radiant, as it changes, grows, matures, peaks and finally wanes. It looks at conception and "aging" during pre-natal development and a homage to the creativity of young people which shows the developing teen brain from infancy and childhood to adolescence.

The primary goal of BODY WORLDS is health education. On the one hand, individual specimens are used to compare healthy and diseased organs, i.e., a healthy lung with that of a smoker, to emphasize the importance of a healthy life-style. On the other hand, life-like posed whole-body plastinates illustrate where in our bodies these organs are positioned and what we are: naturally fragile in a mechanized world.

Really interesting to see the embryos growing at different stages developing into foetus and into a baby at birth. You learn how the human body ages through time. I was particularly impressed with the basketball player, the Rider & the Horse. On the walls, there are commentaries, and constantly reminding the visitors the importance of healthy living. There were always cheeky quotes from famous people on Aging. At the end of the exhibition, there's a quote by Mark Twain: "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." :P