Dr. Frankenstein, Come On In

By Jeffrey Ressner

The lines to get into the California Science Center over the holidays were as much as four hours long. But the crowds weren't there to see ancient mummies or modern art. Los Angeles' hottest museum exhibit features 30 human cadavers, all preserved using a special invisible polymer. "Body Worlds," which toured cities in Europe and Asia before opening in L.A. last summer, places the see-through bodies in various poses--playing basketball, practicing yoga, riding a bicycle--to show in graphic detail how the human body works. Also on display: 175 human body parts, from a liver damaged by cirrhosis to lungs diseased from smoking.

The show has had its detractors. Two British Parliament members condemned the anatomical exhibit as "unacceptable in a civilized society," and the Lutheran Church in Germany deemed it immoral. Several California Science Center board members were initially "very uncomfortable" with the exhibit, admits president Jeffrey Rudolph. One controversial display--a partially dissected pregnant woman, whose heart, intestines and 8-month-old fetus are clearly visible--was placed behind a wall with notices posted nearby, to alert anyone who might be offended. Plenty apparently aren't: half a million people have seen the show in L.A., double the attendance of the museum's popular Titanic exhibit in 2003. "Body Worlds" will move to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry on Feb. 4. --By Jeffrey Ressner