Anatomy meets Art

Being a frustrated med student and a fan of Greek mythology, I obliged to Ilia’s invitation to see the Myth of the Human Body Exhibit. The exhibit showcased Plastination, which is a revolutionary method  of preservation developed by a German anatomist named, Gunther von Hagens. The 45-60 minute guided tour was indeed amazing. Well, actually you can opt for a walk-through type of tour but yeah, in pursuit of additional knowledge we chose to be whisked into the fascinating and grossly awesome world of plastination. Most of the donors were Chinese, there are only 2 European cadavers. The exhibit consists of several chambers showcasing the different systems of the the human body. Each chamber is associated with the different Greek Gods. 

• Hercules  - the Musculatory & Skeletal System
• Poseidon - the Respiratory System
  
• Dionysus - the Digestive System
• Hades - Circulatory System
• Eros - Reproductive System
• Zeus - Nervous System
• Artemis - Fetal System (Fetus)

Kelly, our very informative tour guide inserting a little dead pan humor in between made the tour more casual rather than hardcore educational. Here are some of the things I picked up: 

1. Plastination takes embalming to a different level allowing the “plastinates” more manipulable. Right after death, rigor mortis occurs, everything turns hard wherein if you died of lockjaw…yeah, you get the picture. But with polymers, rigor mortis can be prevented and they can turn every body into some sort of marionettes. There, cadavers can be in soccer-playing, discus-throwing or biking positions, whichever you want.

2. There is more heart muscle in the left side of our body. The bisected human cadaver shows that not everything is asymmetrical. Later on, it’s significance will be revealed.

3. Muscles develop depending on how often they are used and this is specially true for men and their six pack. Actually, there are 8 packs but only 6 are visible once properly maintained.

4. The human brain is the size of our two fists joined together. It’s crumpled and wrinkly and the more wrinkly they are the more intelligent the person is according to the tour guide. He also mentioned “Huwag po kayong mag-alala , walang utak na plantiado.”

5. The right testicle is lower than the left. And yes there is a reason for that - it’s to avoid friction because when there is friction, there is heat. When there is too much heat, the sperm dies. And yes, the ability to procreate will cease to exist. (Now see the value of asymmetrical nature of our bodies as pointed out in no. 2). (E.T.A. - Yes, that was sort of an information overload for me)

6. How do you identify a male pelvis from a female? Males have heart-shaped ones and females have wider and more pointed coccyx. The importance of this for women is for the purpose of child birth.

7. Organs have personalities.  The liver is the most awesome organ next to the brain, because it can continuously repair itself. The brain however is the only part of the body which has no pain receptors.  The pancreas, self-destructs after you die. It’s the most emo organ of all.

8. You would know if the woman is right-handed or not based on the size of her breasts. Seriously. I mean you could just ask, right? But for the sake of self-discovery and objective observation rather than perversion, if you notice that the left is bigger than the other, it means that she’s right handed. The mammary glands are basically made of fat and if we’re using the the right side’s muscles more often, they’d be leaner or smaller. 

9. The stomach can expand for more than 4 - 5 times it’s original size. But your gluttony is still not a good excuse because over expanding can lead to delapidation of the stomach’s lining.

10. You’re organs are essential for you to fully function. Duh?! But maintaining it’s normal function is a lifetime challenge. You must also be able to fully utilize it within a considerable amount of time. For women, it is advisable to get pregnant before they hit 30 and as the wise tour guide says “If lagpas ka na ng 30, text text na lang”.  Over and under utilization of our organs causes diseases. So yeah, it’s critical to reach equilibrium.  No wonder, nobody every got out of life alive.

It’s a wonderful experience to that given this technology we are exposed to this level of awareness, that being alive and functioning is a gift. How everything is created for a purpose and how we must learn to be masters of our temples. Profound, isn’t it? I was trying to. The goal really of the exhibit is to let everybody realize the importance of taking care of own bodies. How do we want to die depends on which poison we would like to take? I’d like to say diabetes. I’d die of sweetness. Oh crap, didn’t that just sound corny to you?