EDGE San Francisco

Chicago’s MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & INDUSTRY has recently opened a new exhibit called "YOU!, THE EXPERIENCE". I found it to be an exceptionally "HANDS-ON" type of experience, with more than 50 INTERACTIVE displays & experiments showcasing the links between the human body, mind & spirit...

... There are cutaway examples of various areas of the human body (organs, interior workings, etc.) including "Body Slices" (seen in part in some past exhibits), and a 3-D Giant HEART (projected on a wall) that beats in time with your OWN pulse (once you hold onto sort of handlebars so it knows what your pulse is), etc...

... Parents & kids eagerly played various games, most designed to illustrate important elements such as "Stay Active", "See Sound", "Hungry", "Your Expressions", "Appetite" (including "Food Deserts" about Chicago areas with a lack of supermarkets), "Super Size You" including "What’s In It", "Still Kicking", & sports-related elements (such as testing basketball moves with a "virtual coach")...

... There’s a game called "Mindball" wherein you can win by controlling your brainwaves (which supposedly can provide "competitive relaxation"), a game where you can use trackballs to move animated characters around an oval "maze" in competition with others, and numerous devices where you can see and sometimes test yourself & your health in various ways. You can see real-time feedback on how your body responds to physical activity by using a human-sized "Hamster Wheel" (tho it wasn’t in operation when I was there)...

... Various exhibits showed current & future ways to try to overcome physical problems via artificial prosthetic & other devices for limbs, eyes, etc. I was able to use a device to show blood rushing thru my veins (by putting my hand under a scanner), & there were other fascinating items I didn’t even have time to use (because of time limits & the fact other people were regularly using them)...

... You can save certain pictures & sounds you get involved with in the exhibit by scanning your barcoded "SciPass" ticket where that symbol is shown; later, you can create an account on-line (at msichicago.org/scipass), enter your barcode #, & the "saved" items will be shown to you...

... One of the more fascinating sections in the "You!" exhibit is a "live" interactive group in the "LAB" of the "MSI HOSPITAL": in this, up to 30 people at a time work (over a 30-minute period) with a robotic "VIRTUAL" PATIENT SIMULATOR called "iStan" who’s on an operating table, to try to determine what’s "wrong" with him...

... Two real female doctors divided the visitors (including me) into 5-person groups at 5 tables representing specific medical areas at a hospital- "E.R.", etc. Each table had one person assigned to various specific medical disciples: 1 for Cardiology (re the heart-- that was MY position at my table), 1 as Neurology, 1 as Otolaryngology (nose, throat, etc.), 1 Hematology (blood work), etc. Each person was given an information sheet explaining the work such doctors did, how things were done, & so on...

... The doctors called all the similar disciples up at one time, to work on the iStan robot. In other words, I went up with the assigned Cardiologists from the other tables, &, using the robot (which works to duplicate human responses), we each went to different areas on the robot to check out its HEART RATE (pulse) at proper points (I was assigned to the upper right arm). We then reported our results to the Hematology person at our table, & they entered the result on a special sheet to create an "overall" picture of the condition of the "patient"...

... Then, the other people at the tables were called up to do THEIR special tests on the iStan "patient" (re Blood Pressure, Respiratory Rate, Breathing Sounds, Oxygen Saturation, etc.), all of which were then entered onto the Report sheet. All the while, the doctors kept explaining things, commenting on things that could go "wrong" in such tests, etc. We were also given a real stethoscope & blood-pressure cuff to test out on ourselves, etc. There was a little "review" of the final "results" each table got...
... After that "explanatory" segment, each table was called up SEPARATELY to the iStan patient, for a "CONTEST": we were supposed to do "tests" representing our individual SPECIFIC disciplines, to try to determine what was the OVERALL problem that the highly-sophisticated robotic "patient" was suffering (from a list we were given of POSSIBLE problems & the "signs" of such problems in each discipline)...
... I immediately reported that (compared to the previous test where the heart rate was 76), the "patient’s" heart rate in this test was at least DOUBLE what it had been before-- which, to me, was a sign (per the sheet) of either a HEART ATTACK or Chest Trauma... But, -- as I reported to the doctors -- 2 of the other 4 people from my table were unable to find ANY responses they were looking for on iStan (about Blood Pressure, mouth / breathing condition, etc.), so we had to work from very INCOMPLETE data to try to come to a determination...

... The other people at my table (a husband, wife & daughter, etc.) voted to choose "ANAPHYLACTIC SHOCK" as the main problem with the patient. Since that diagnostic was wrong (it was indeed a HEART ATTACK!), our table did not "win" any "You!" sticker (as a couple of other tables won for being right in their determination re their different enigma -- Breathing problems, etc.)...

... But, whenever a table guessed wrong, the doctors asked questions based on what we DID choose as a "group" determination. Thus, we were asked what was the inherent PROBLEM in a patient having anaphylactic shock? I said, a bad ALLERGIC reaction to something, which was correct. We were asked, what could be done to COMBAT the problem?, & the daughter said, using a shot of Benadryl. Since our table was correct, we each WON a large "You!" sticker... It was a fascinating and fun educational experience!...



"THE HUMAN BODY" -- Amazing journey of Personal Discovery

Rating: 8.5 of 10 stars (as seen in OMNIMAX).

... After the "You!" exhibit, I went to see one of the two new OMNIMAX films at the MSI-- "THE HUMAN BODY" (done by the BBC). It uses amazingly detailed microscope enlargements, cameras, cgi, etc. to highlite what happens inside our body as we grow, when we exercise, listen to loud music, eat a meal, have a baby, and so on:

... There are loads of mind-blowing facts described & shown (& they were spoken of so briskly, I may have gotten some of my notations erroneous at times): how our body creates 2 million new red blood cells every minute; how the BRAIN uses about 20% of all the energy produced by our body; examples of how the body gives off heat (when riding a bicycle-- which is wonderful for helping blood flow thru our body, etc.); how the fragile bones in our ears stop growing in size when we’re a baby, etc.

... In this film, you can see how certain of our physical elements reach their peak by the time we become teenagers; how babies crawl over 60 miles in their first few years of life; how scientists have recently found that babies have a special "DIVING reflex" wherein their bodies automatically stop them from trying to breathe when under water, & they have a natural swimming coordination between their arms & legs (kicking, etc.) when in the water...

... The film shows (in fantastic detail) what happens to food after we eat it (how our body drives it down our esophagus at 2" per second, how it extracts nourishment we need from the food, etc.); how hair can grow at an overall rate of 30 yards every 24 hours; how the female egg is the largest cell in the human body & how it’s fertilized; the remarkable mechanical working of our heart; how oxygen is absorbed into our bloodstream; how puberty is driven by powerful hormones that can often create "turmoil" (including, as one boy in the movie put it, how he had a "zit" that was "the size of UTAH!"); etc.

... This movie uses various techniques to better illustrate things about our body-- X-rays, heat sensors, seemingly-moving "mini" cameras, ultrasound (showing a baby in the womb), personal discussions, etc. It’s an unusually well-done & informative film.