D
iscovery Times Square is currently showing Gunther von Hagens’ BODY WORLDS: PULSE exhibit, and it is spectacular! When you walk in between the different specimens, it’s almost as if you’re back on the Magic School Bus, as if you are traveling through your own body, one impressive stop after the next. It’s bewildering, enthralling, and a little alarming to learn about all the “stuff” we have. Our bones are harder than reinforced concrete, our skin is the largest external organ we have, our blood can circulate our entire bodies in 20 seconds, and our nerve impulses travel at 400 kilometers per hour. Most of us don’t stop to think about just how incredible these facts are; we think about other things, things that really don’t help us live longer, or healthier, or with more appreciation for others and ourselves. One of the more striking specimens was an obese man. The layer of fat surrounding his organs clearly constrained them, adding unwanted pressure and causing them to work even harder to sustain him. Another shocking example was of a smoker’s lung. Dark, tarnished and clearly unhealthy, it’s a much more serious deterrent than any of the anti-smoking campaigns seen on TV. It’s humbling to realize that we are impressive without trying, just the way we are. Hopefully, the exhibit will give this humility to most people who visit it, and inspire people to take care of their health. Gunther von Hagens is the inventor of plastination, the technique used in preserving the human body, and it is his hope to become the center specimen of the exhibit once he passes away. After spending close to thirty years collecting, fighting for, and preserving the specimens, his exhibition proudly features the bodies of donors and volunteers, rather than bodies of unknown people, or bodies whose acquisition is questionable. The authenticity and scandalous ensemble of bodies at PULSE is a testament to the hard work for the curator, and his dedication to showing us what we are, piece by piece. The exhibition reveals the power and delicacy of our bodies. It shows us just how amazing the wiring that powers us really is. But it also poses a problem: if we are the sum of our parts, and our parts are truly extraordinary, why is that some of us are so much less sensational?
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