If you’ve every wondered about all the slimy, stinky and noisy parts of your body, now is the time to learn about them. For the next three months, the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park is hosting “Grossology: The (Impolite) Science of the Human Body,” an exhibition based on the best-selling book by Sylvia Branzei-Velasquez. The hands-on, interactive display explores and explains just about everything that goes into and comes out of the body.
Nigel Nose-It-All, a nine-foot, talking, moving, animatronic, leaky faucet, presided over the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Jan. 19.
“Grossology educates children about their bodies in language they use, because most people don’t talk about such things. Yet there is incredible science in grossology. After all, it’s important to realize that everyone “” you, me, we “” all have bodies that make gross things,” said Nigel as he addressed a group of entranced children form Hillcrest Elementary.
Almost every gross thing you can think of is subjected to scrutiny in grossology, including how the nose operates and what causes runny noses. In “Y U Stink,” visitors smell different odors and try to guess from which body part the stink originated. At the “vomit center,” the goal is to guess the correct order of events that lead to vomiting. A correct guess is rewarded with a simulated barf from a cartoon character.
A large-scale replica of human skin serves as a climbing wall in which pimples, warts, hair and moles provide handholds and footholds. After scaling the wall, visitors come to Burp Man, a huge cartoon character with a clear stomach that visitors can fill by pumping in soda. Once the stomach pressure reaches the critical threshold, the character releases a giant, satisfying burp.
Right next door is an exhibit about the other method of gas release, Toot Toot, which provides rubber tubing and forced air to re-create the physics of tooting.
Anyone who enjoyed the board game Operation will love the Patients Please! exhibit, which is a lifesize version of the game. Visitors learn the names of various body parts and internal organs while trying to skillfully remove them. In Look Inside, a simulated X-ray reveals what happens to food as it travels through the gastrointestinal system.
Urine: the Game, is a video game that teaches visitors how the kidneys remove waste from the blood, and Let’s Play Grossology is a multi-player, multiple-choice trivia game that tests all the knowledge learned from the exhibits.
Book backdrops are scattered throughout the exhibition, containing more detailed information and interesting points from the grossology book. Branzei-Velasquez, the author of the book, views this as “science in disguise.” While the exhibition is intended to be fun for children, it is also designed to teach them about the body “” and it can be enjoyed by anyone who wishes to learn more on the subject.
Said Jeffery Kirsh, executive director of the Fleet Science Center, “It’s an opportunity to learn that we all share the same basic things. If we can learn about it, it means we’re going to start asking more questions about it.”
The exhibit will run until April 29. For more information, visit www.rhfleet.org.