Body Worlds-& the Mirror of Time in London

 Just came from the Bodyworlds exhibition at the O2-There's a real and very dead pregnant woman that sort of greets you as you walk in which is, quite frankly, shocking (even though I had been warned) and instead of intriguing me had the opposite effect. At first the natural revulsion at death is pretty strong especially when fetus' are displayed and you move on to a four year old's skeleton. I was more concerned with the ethics surrounding how a kid consents to having his dead body stripped literally to the bone and displayed than fascinated by the intricacies of his spine, however amazing.

As you move through the exhibition, you move through the phases of the human body and come across a basketball player, a dancer, an artist, a chess player and a few others whose donated bodies have undergone plastination or whatever it's called and been molded into interesting poses. Their muscles are incredible but the poses are stuck in a scientist's attempt at art-sometimes interesting and sometimes cringingly embarrassing. One guy is holding his entire layer of skin and in my book that's little bit too reminiscent of Hannibal.

 When the novelty had eroded I was left feeling a little bit sad for those who had donated their bits and bobs to a cause that was relatively unnecessary. While the whole plastination process is amazing, the whole thing could have been moulded just as well using man-made materials, not man itself. Flesh and bone seem to have been used simply for commercial gain, despite a healthy 'keep fit and don't smoke' theme that creeps in. Were the specimens just made of plastic they would fit in well at the Science Museum, and as we all sadly know, probably wouldn't make the news.

On leaving the exhibition I was a little bit too blasee for my liking since I'd spent a couple of hours looking at dead bodies but I hadn't really learnt much (although I had satisfied my morbid curiosity). I hope the Bodyworlds inspires some people to go into medicine or stop smoking or over eating and I am glad I went. Sort of.