Science Museum Oklahoma showcases preserved bodies

rains, bones and blood vessels weren’t the only human elements exposed on opening day of “Bodies Revealed” at Science Museum Oklahoma.

For Alesa McPhail, of Moore, the traveling exhibition was the ideal place to spend her birthday since she could let out her inner science geek.

“I saw this on Facebook, and I was like, ‘This is what I want to do,’” McPhail said with a smile. “I get to nerd out.”

She and a group of friends were among the hundreds of Oklahomans who braved stormy weather on a recent Saturday to be among the first to check out the highly anticipated “Bodies Revealed,” a collection of human bodies dissected and preserved in a peculiar plasticized state.

“It is demystifying. A lot of times we hear, ‘Don’t do this, that’s bad for your body,’” said Clint Stone, the museum's director of education and training. “When you come through this exhibit, you see exactly how the human body works ... and it becomes very real."

Developed by Premier Exhibitions Inc., “Bodies Revealed” features whole and partial scientific human body specimens that have been preserved through a process called polymer preservation.

The exhibit is perhaps best known for showcasing full-body forms arranged in athletic poses — lunging into a deep crouch, sitting at a table, kneeling with a bow in hand — designed to help visitors better understand their own everyday movements. But it also includes dozens of human organs and other parts preserved to the cellular level, from the tiny trio of bones taken from the middle ear to the network of blood vessels usually hidden inside the kidneys.

“That’s what we’re here for, is to reveal the wonder and relevance of science. We’re getting great responses from places like the biology classes, from the nursing schools,” said Sherry Marshall, Science Museum Oklahoma president and CEO. “This is real-life relevance where you can see it up close and personal and you’re not just looking at a textbook.”

Extra credit

Tori Davis, astudent at Murray State College in Tishomingo, came to the exhibit’s opening day to get extra credit for her anatomy and physiology class. Her mother, Machelle Ellis, came out of curiosity.