To Do Today: Explore the New Body Worlds Exhibition: Anatomy of Happiness on Newbury Street
To Do Today: Explore the New Body Worlds: Anatomy of Happiness Exhibition on Newbury Street
Observe real human specimens up close, and see how happiness affects the human body
What?
Body Worlds: The Anatomy of Happiness Exhibition.
When?
Open until January 9, 2024. Find hours here.
Where?
The Back Bay Hub, 343 Newbury St., Boston.
How much?
Tickets are $27 for students and seniors, $29 for adults, and $25 for children ages 3 to 12. VIP Tickets are $45 and include flexible time of entry, an audio guide, and 20 percent off exhibition merchandise.
Why should I go?
Almost 50 years ago, famed anatomist Gunther von Hagens invented plastination, the process by which all fluid and soluble fat is dissolved from a cadaver. After the body is pumped with a silicon substance, it is preserved indefinitely.
Von Hagens also thought these bodies should be on display. In 1995, he started Body Worlds, a traveling exhibition of his work displaying the bodies, stripped of their skin, in various poses. These shows have proved to be wildly popular and have been visited by more than 54 million people in 154 cities across the globe.
The newest of these exhibitions, Body Worlds: The Anatomy of Happiness, shows the influence happiness has on human health. The multifloor exhibition takes guests on a tour of the neurological, locomotive, digestive, prenatal, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems that make our bodies function. It also shows the negative toll that drugs and diseases take on the body.
The exhibition includes interactive pieces, like a face scanner that interprets visitors’ moods from their expressions, a dance floor, and an “anatomical mirror” that allows visitors to see an animation of the inner workings of their own bodies. Other interesting stops along the tour include a deep dive into the health benefits of laughter and a look at the lives and habits of centenarians (people who live 100 years or more) that might reveal the secrets to a long and healthy life.
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