'Body Worlds' Exhibit To Close Monday At MSI
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The third installment of the "Body Worlds" exhibit will close this coming Monday at the Museum of Science and Industry, but the museum will keep the exhibit open for extended hours for anyone who missed it.
The rest of the museum will close at 5:30 p.m.
The exhibit of the real and human animal bodies that have been "plastinated" has been at the MSI since March. The current exhibition, called "Body Worlds & the Cycle of Life," explores the human body living through time, in states of distress, disease and good health.
Among the highlights are a look at conception and fetal life, and a display on the eyesight of artists Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, who suffered from eye disease.
In total, the exhibit features 20 full size plastinated bodies, including an ostrich, and plastinates of hockey and football players frozen in motion.
The plastination process allows people to see what the internal body looks like under a clear plastic coating. Celebrity anatomist Gunther von Hagens is the innovator behind the process, and the exhibits.
Previous "Body Worlds" exhibits were mounted at the MSI in 2005 and 2007, and proved so popular that the museum kept them open for 24 hours toward the end of their runs.
Some of von Hagens' plastinated specimens are also on display permanently at the museum, as part of the "YOU! The Experience" exhibit.
