Month: February 2009

Bodyworlds Exhibition

Went to the BodyWorlds Exhibition at the O2 Dome last week.

You know, it’s really strange to see corpses on display.  We don’t see the dead very often in our culture. Indeed, the rituals and traditions around death go along way to conceal the body itself.

I thought it would be morbid and creepy to wander around an exhibition of death.  Far from it. The whole experience was fascinating.

Dr Gunther von Hagens, the man behind the exhibition, has developed a process known as plastination to preserve the bodies. It takes a while to realise that these were once living, breathing people. People who willingly donated their body for preservation and display. The thing that really hit it home for me was the fingernails. They looked realistic and mortal. A reminder that these were the remains of real people.

I was fascinated to see a sequence of test tubes demonstrating foetal development from the first to the eighth week.   Week one is a tiny collection of cells resembling a minuscule chicken egg cracked into water. Week eight looks like a small salamander curled up in a ball, complete with tiny arms and, believe it or not, a clearly visible tail. I was absolutely stunned to see a tiny foetus with a tail. I never realised that in the early stages of development, a tail emerges which develops into the coccyx. I must have been asleep in that biology lesson !

The exhibition went on to graphically show the different life stages: birth, growth, youth, ageing, deterioration and death. Smoker’s lungs, Alzheimer’s brains, enlarged prostates, obesity, heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver starkly demonstrated how fragile we really are.

I found myself, almost subconsciously, standing in front of a display and running my hands over my shoulder or face to feel the outline of my own body. Searching out a nerve crossing a bone, tracing the route of a blood vessel, identifying cartilage or the bone configurations I could see before me.

A really fascinating, challenging and enlightening day out.  At the end, they give you a Life Certificate with a neat 6-point manifesto:

Attitude: stay optimistic and keep your sense of humour!
Genetics: pay attention to prevention and screening!
Exercise: four times a week and 30 minutes a day!
Interest: keep exercising the brain!
Nutrition: maintain a healthy weight!
Get rid of: smoking!

I see another set of New Year’s resolutions emerging…

Location, Location, Location

The online giants are moving into mobile.  Apple, and now Google, are transforming the mobile landscape. Watch out Nokia.

This clip demonstrates how far Goolge could revolutionise, and eventually dominate,  mobile if it gets things right.  One to watch.