May 18, 2006
MEDIA CONTACT: Caroline Witherspoon
or Jocelyn Collado
Becker Communications
(808) 533-4165
EXPLORE THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE DOWNRIGHT UGLY OF THE HUMAN BODY AT BISHOP MUSEUM’S LATEST TRAVELING EXHIBIT
**Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Body Opens on June 10**
HONOLULU – Did you know that you produce a quart of saliva each day or that your large intestine is about five feet long? How about that there are more than 250,000 sweat pores on the soles of your feet? These are just a few of the intriguing (and slightly disgusting) facts of the human body. At Bishop Museum’s latest national traveling exhibit, Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body, you can explore why your body produces the mushy, oozy, crusty, scaly and stinky things it does.
Based on the best-selling book Grossology, this exhibition, on display in the Castle Memorial Building from June 10 thru August 27, 2006, uses sophisticated animatronics and imaginative exhibits to tell you the good, the bad, and the ugly about runny noses, body odor, pimples, scabs, bad breath, and much more.
“The interactive and hands-on exhibit really captures kids’ attentions,” said Mike Shanahan, Bishop Museum’s director of education. “Kids like gross stuff. Grossology puts the science behind what they know about what their bodies does and presents it to them in words they use and understand.”
The first of its kind, the exhibition gives kids, along with intrigued adults, an opportunity to:
- Climb a human skin wall with warts, hairs, wounds and other objects that act as hand and foot holds to discover more about pimples, blisters, pores, bruises and scabs as they relate to the epidermis.
- Visit the Vomit center and learn the many reasons humans vomit. Or, stop by the Toot Toot exhibit to create different sounds that replicate the physics of gas.
- Help a larger-than-life cartoon character release a giant burp by pumping soda pop from a three-foot can to make him drink and increase his stomach pressure.
- Crawl and slide through a 30+-foot-long 3-D model of the digestive system.
- Learn how food is digested as it passes through the gastrointestinal system by watching an X-ray machine.
- Find out what causes runny noses, sneezes and allergies with Nigel Nose-it-All.
- Learn how boogers are formed by launching dirt balls into a larger-than-life nose that may just shoot the dirt balls back at you with a sneeze.
- Play Gas Attack pinball and see how certain foods build up to cause gas.
- Become a dust particle and walk through a giant nose to learn about air filtering, air heating, olfaction and mucus production.
- Play surgeon and attempt to remove organ parts from a body without touching the sides of the patient.
- Act as a kidney by using a virtual reality glove and blue-screen technology to grab waste elements and remove them from the blood stream, and much more.
Grossology is a collaboration between Science World, Advanced Exhibits, and Grossology author Sylvia Branzei. For more information, visit the Grossology website at www.grossologytour.com.
Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body at Bishop Museum is supported in part by Horizon Lines.
A treasured resource of Hawaiian history and heritage Bishop Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop as a tribute to his wife Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last descendant of the royal Kamehameha dynasty. Located at 1525 Bernice Street, the Museum is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $14.95 for adults; $11.95 for youth 4-12 years, special rates for kama‘āina, seniors and military; children under 4 years and Bishop Museum Members are free. For information, call 847-3511 or visit www.bishopmuseum.org. # # #
Editor’s Note: High-resolution photos of the exhibit are available. Please contact Jocelyn Collado of Becker Communications at 533-4165 if you are interested in receiving images. www.bishopmuseum.org.