Tours > Millennium Dome > Body
Body
We were a little late
starting, but by arriving at one o'clock,
felt that we would have plenty of time to
see everything that we wanted to. The
directions were not particularly clear,
but we followed signs and eventually
found ourselves at the entrance to the
dome beside the body zone. As this had
been featured on news reports for several
days because of its queues, we decided to
start there while we were still fresh.
There were a lot of people waiting, but
there was plenty to see on the way
through. There were exhibits and
demonstrations of the latest medical
science, a large area given over to the
human genome project and several
interactive activities. My favourite was
the demonstration of iris recognition,
whereby you have your eyes photographed
and speak your name and then go to the
reader, which by photographing your eyes
can speak your name back to you. In this
area we experienced what was to be a
theme of the whole day: friendly,
well-informed staff freely available in
all areas but the maintenance on the
computerised exhibits could have been
more frequent.
There was a delightful
'alternative therapy' area where we stood
back and enjoyed the scents of grapefruit
and lavender. There were also a number of
fitness and diet-checking machines. As we
approached the body, we came to the
display sponsored by L'Oreal, exploring
the nature of beauty and its importance
to the way we live. There were the bland
pictures of famous people (mostly L'Oreal
models) and the more interesting pictures
of unknown individuals, with a couple of
them speaking on video. A little further
on a presentation was being given on the
dangers of UV rays and the prospect of
deep premature wrinkles for those who
aren't conscientious with the sun block.
Finally we
came to cross the aisle into the main
body queuing area. As we got closer to
the body it was clear that the tiles
which covered the whole structure and
glowed pink, orange and beige did not
have the same shiny ceramic finish as
wall tiles. They were in fact more like
the 'moving pictures' which we had hoped
to find in our Christmas stockings as
children, with a rubbery, lined finish.
Close up, none of us could resist
touching them, just to make sure.
Finally,
we entered the Body. We were greeted with
a roomful of skin containing enormous
hairs, a pierced belly button, lots of
bugs moving around and a couple of spots
for good measure. The next room let us
see all this for real. A gleeful 'doctor'
offered to analyse a volunteer's skin. A very clean-cut
American gentleman volunteered and soon
we were deep within his eyebrows. A
moment later the doctor had found a black
speck and zooming in had been able to
show us a large black flea. He was
obviously delighted, as it had been his
first of the day. We were all a little
itchy as we carried on through the
exhibit.
The next
stage was to travel up an escalator
within the chest cavity, with a large
heart at the top and colourful blood
vessels along the sides. Once at the top
we moved into another room, which showed
sperm making their fateful journey
towards fertilisation. Naturally the
brain came after sex and this was aptly
housed in a large skull and featured
several brains on stalks facing a brain
which was impersonating the famous
comedian Tommy Cooper - odd but
interesting. After this was a long room
which housed the eye, where several
people were queuing to take a look. After
this we took the escalator back out of
the body.
Next Stop: Millennium Show
Related Links while in Greenwich:
Greenwich Attractions
Greenwich Accommodations
How to get Tickets
How to get there
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