The Metropolitan Life Foundation's "The Amazing You: An Exhibition on the Human Body" Fact Sheet

Synopsis: Science CAN happen in your own backyard. It is the backyard inside our bodies where intricate processes must coordinate perfectly to keep us healthy. "The Amazing You" tours the human body in all its complexity-from DNA to cells to organs to individuals. The story line focuses on three themes: "How We Work," "Wellness-How We Keep Ourselves Going," and "Taking Care of Ourselves When Things Go Wrong." Various activities encourage guests to make connections between exhibit topics and their own bodies and experiences.

Size: 5,500 square feet

Icon: Food For Thought Café is an icon for exhibits on nutrition and eating well. An interactive video disk allows a friendly waitress to critique the menu selections of guests. A menu board gives adult-level information about the nutrients in foods and why they are necessary for the human body.

Location: Third floor

Number of hands-on components: 60

Highlights:

• The Miracle of Life theater shows excerpts from the Nova film, explaining human development from conception to birth. A live birth is shown.
Inflatable models of a gymnast demonstrating balance, a cut-away view of an arm, a moveable hand, and a baby.
• Inside the Human Machine, a touch screen interactive video disk that invites guests to explore seven major systems of the body.
• DNA piano. A four-key piano illustrating the infinite number of potential combinations of DNA bases.
• Skeleton on a beach cruiser illustrates the complexity of the muscular system. Four buttons operate specific motions of the skeleton's two legs.
• Bike course monitors heart rate, time, speed, and shows the physiological changes that occur in the human body when engaged in strenuous exercise.
• Wheelchair course which allows guests to experience the challenges of mobility impairment.
• Operating room - A video projection creates the illusion of an operation being performed. It familiarizes guests with some of the instruments used, the environment of an operating room, and common operations.
• Blood exhibit with scale to determine how much blood in an individual's body; seashell to "hear" blood; model of an eye to "see" blood cells.

Major donors:
The Metropolitan Life Foundation
Humana Health Care Plans
Radiology Associates
Duckwall Foundation
Florida Blood Foundation, Inc.
Community Regional Blood Center Foundation, Inc.
James N. Patterson Research and Education Fund of Florida Blood Services, Inc.