Exploring Controversy in Science Museums: Non-visitors and the Body Worlds Exhibits

Author(s):  
Erminia Pedretti ◽  
Ana Maria Navas Iannini ◽  
Joanne Nazir
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Obiter ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Slabbert ◽  
Bonnie Venter

The Body Worlds exhibition takes the visitor through a journey of more than 200 specimens. These various skinless full body plastinates are posed in different positions to display how the human body works; they vary from the chess player with his brain split open to display the brain “in action”, the runner with his muscles falling off the bones to display the working of the muscles in athletics and the controversial pregnant woman with her womb cut open to show her eight month old foetus. Von Hagens the creator of Body Worlds believes his exhibition is educational – educating the masses. Since the first exhibition of Body Worlds there has been rigorous debate on whether the display is a violation of human dignity or not. This aspect is discussed in the article. In conclusion the process regarding donating a complete dead body in South Africa is highlighted and the question is answered whether a South African citizen could legally donate his or her body to a Body Worlds display.


2013 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 306-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Goulding ◽  
Michael Saren ◽  
Andrew Lindridge
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  

Nuncius ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Canadelli

AbstractThe essay focuses on the discourse about the human body developed by contemporary science museums with educational and instructive purposes directed at the general public. These museums aim mostly at mediating concepts such as health and prevention. The current scenario is linked with two examples of past museums: the popular anatomical museums which emerged during the 19th century and the health museums thrived between 1910 and 1940. On the museological path about the human body self-care we went from the emotionally involving anatomical Venuses to the inexpressive Transparent Man, from anatomical specimens of ill organs and deformed subjects to the mechanical and electronic models of the healthy body. Today the body is made transparent by the new medical diagnostics and by the latest discoveries of endoscopy. The way museums and science centers presently display the human body involves computers, 3D animation, digital technologies, hands-on models of large size human parts.


Author(s):  
Lui Román Rabanaque

Nuestra familiaridad con los dinosaurios proviene del cine, pero comienza con los manuales escolares y los museos de ciencia natural, gracias a los cuales sabemos que, a diferencia de otros seres fantásticos de la pantalla grande y de la literatura de ficción, se trata de seres reales que sin embargo no pueden darse en carne y hueso. ¿Cómo se constituye fenomenológicamente el dinosaurio como animal anterior a toda criatura de la que podemos tener experiencia? Procuraremos esbozar una respuesta en tres eta-pas, siguiendo los análisis constitutivos de Husserl. En primer lugar, respecto del darse del otro mediante la corporalidad y la empatía. En segundo lugar, respecto del darse de los animales vivientes. Por último, respecto del darse del fósil como cuerpo cultural que permite exhibirlo como animal de los tiempos jurásicos.Our acquaintance with dinosaurs comes from the movies, but it begins with school handbooks and natural science museums, whereby we know that, unlike other fantastic be-ings displayed on the screen or in fairy-tales, they are real but not actually given beings. How does the dinosaur phenomenologically constitute itself as an animal which predates any creature we can have experience of? Following Husserl’s constitutive analyses, we shall try to sketch an answer in three stages. First, with regard to the givenness of the Other through empathy and the Body. Second, with regard to the giveness of liv-ing animals. Finally, with regard to the givenness of fossils as cultural bodies which make the ap-pearance of Jurassic animals possible.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Spurrett

Abstract Comprehensive accounts of resource-rational attempts to maximise utility shouldn't ignore the demands of constructing utility representations. This can be onerous when, as in humans, there are many rewarding modalities. Another thing best not ignored is the processing demands of making functional activity out of the many degrees of freedom of a body. The target article is almost silent on both.


Author(s):  
Wiktor Djaczenko ◽  
Carmen Calenda Cimmino

The simplicity of the developing nervous system of oligochaetes makes of it an excellent model for the study of the relationships between glia and neurons. In the present communication we describe the relationships between glia and neurons in the early periods of post-embryonic development in some species of oligochaetes.Tubifex tubifex (Mull. ) and Octolasium complanatum (Dugès) specimens starting from 0. 3 mm of body length were collected from laboratory cultures divided into three groups each group fixed separately by one of the following methods: (a) 4% glutaraldehyde and 1% acrolein fixation followed by osmium tetroxide, (b) TAPO technique, (c) ruthenium red method.Our observations concern the early period of the postembryonic development of the nervous system in oligochaetes. During this period neurons occupy fixed positions in the body the only observable change being the increase in volume of their perikaryons. Perikaryons of glial cells were located at some distance from neurons. Long cytoplasmic processes of glial cells tended to approach the neurons. The superimposed contours of glial cell processes designed from electron micrographs, taken at the same magnification, typical for five successive growth stages of the nervous system of Octolasium complanatum are shown in Fig. 1. Neuron is designed symbolically to facilitate the understanding of the kinetics of the growth process.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document