Bodies

Science museums across the country have been attracting huge crowds to exhibits featuring human bodies, or cadavers, that have been treated with silicone (plastinated) for public viewing. This NPR piece by Neda Ulaby, Cadaver Exhibits Are Part Science, Part Sideshow (All Things Considered, 8/10/06 - 8:57) presents an overview of the phenomenon or fad, raising an issue that haunts all sorts of exhibitions, including zoos, and that is, how do we balance the educational value versus a kind of unseemly sensationalism and voyeurism? (See these Wikipedia entries on zoos and Ripley's Believe-It-or-Not Museums.)

Ulaby also has a background piece on the same page. NPR's Day to Day did a piece on the plastination process two years ago (7/16/2005 - 5:42). Body Worlds has its own web site and there is a Wikipedia entry as well.