Exhibit Offers Never-Before-Seen Views of Human Body

A new exhibit on display through Sept. 8 at the John P. McGovern Museum of Health & Medical Science provides a glimpse of some of the deepest realms of the human body ever before seen.

"Inside Out: The Visible Human" features images taken from the body of executed convict Joseph Paul Jernigan of Waco, Texas, who donated his body to science just before his execution in 1993. Segments of Jernigan’s body were frozen, quartered, sliced, photographed and digitized into "bits and bytes," resulting in a virtual "Visible Man." Today, the images have been compiled into a traveling exhibit.

Created for the Maryland Science Center, the exhibit was originally part of the National Library of Medicine’s Visible Human Project, led by Dr. Michael Ackerman, and designed as a reference tool for the largest collection of medical knowledge in the world. Photographers logged more than 129,000 computer hours to create rotating images of the body, viewable from any angle. Researchers, physicians, educators and even Hollywood studios are now using these digitized images in a variety of ways.

"With this new exhibit, the John P. McGovern Museum of Health & Medical Science hopes to introduce new ways of seeing the human body and its parts, through means such as thermal imaging, holograms and scans," said museum director Randy Ray.

A highlight of the exhibit is a bird’s-eye view of the body in layers, giving a glimpse of its awesome muscles, skin and external features. Visitors also are provided insight into various medical imaging techniques, including CAT scans and MRIs, revealing several different layers of the body, such as bones and soft and rigid tissue.

For more information on the National Library of Medicine’s Visible Human Project, visit www.nlm.nih.gov or e-mail vhp@nlm.nih.gov. For more information about the "Inside Out: The Visible Human" exhibit at the John P. McGovern Museum of Health & Medical Science, visit www.museumofhealth.org or call (713) 521-1515. The exhibit is sponsored locally by the Diagnostic Clinic of Houston, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Castle Dental, the Houston Chronicle and Oldies 107.5FM radio.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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