Late start, spent morning catching up on blog
Considered going to American Folk Art Museum, but not on my Pass, so might save for Thursday or Friday (pass expires Wed night)
Decided to skip NY Hall of Science - just too busy all over, but especially for a hands-on type place.
Found a few t-shirts for the kids, and just pottering about. Had a wander around St Patrick's Cathedral (there was a service going on, but plenty of other tourists quietly wandering around). Neo-Gothic, complete (cf St John the Divine), statues of saints in each of the alcoves, each with a rack of candles burning - compare and contrast High Anglican with Catholic.
Tried to get ticket for Top of the Rock, but ten minute queue to get ticket for entry in 1.5 hours made me change my mind. Instead I went to Chelsea Market (see Day 6.1 for details).
After poking my head in at Filene's Basement (ironically, the top three floors of a building overlooking Union Square; reminded me very much of a Dimmeys store), I decided to go to the Bodies exhibition. No pics allowed.
Glad I went late in the afternoon, when it was pretty quiet. I could see they were equipped to deal with huge queues, suggesting it's much busier in the morning/at weekends.
It was interesting, and I picked up a few new bits of info. My knowledge of human anatomy is probably better than the average engineer-cum-accountant because my parents are doctors, and you pick up a surprising amount by osmosis. The bodies themselves appeared to all be Asian (I have some vague recollection that they're all Chinese, possibly former prisoners), and mostly male.
The room showcasing foetal development was separated off, making it easy to avoid viewing for those who might choose to. This was probably the most interesting for me. I was familiar with the written descriptions of the size of an embryo/foetus, but it was a different experience to see them.
(Just in case this bothers you too, I put the rest after the jump)
An embryo at six weeks (not clear whether its six weeks post-conception or six weeks post LMP, the latter I think) is perhaps 6mm diameter, but the head and arm and leg buds are already visible. By the sixth week of pregnancy, most women know they're pregnant, and may already be suffering morning sickness.
By ten weeks, the foetus is perhaps and inch and a half long. These specimens had been treated to remove most of the flesh, leaving a visible pro to-skeleton. The thickest sections of the bones (arms, legs, ribs, even fingers) were red, which I'm guessing correlates with the marrow; the bones themselves were translucent, completely lacking in mineralisation.
With both my boys, I got a nuchal fold translucency ultrasound done at around 12-13 weeks, which is an indirect means of estimating the risk of the foetus having Downs Syndrome. It's also the first chance you get to look at the critter growing inside you. What is so remarkable is that at 12 weeks, a foetus is barely 8cm long, yet most the bits are already there, including the sex organs. Seeing how small yet well-developed a 12 week old foetus is was fascinating.
The largest foetus they had there was 24 weeks, which is about the limit for viability.
Anyway. The exhibition had explanations of the skeletal, muscular, endocrine, vascular, and reproductive systems. (I might be missing one), as well as cross-sections (cross wise, as well as lengthwise, called saggital) of whole cadavers. It was also fascinating to see diseased organs next to healthy ones - be they stomach ulcers, osteosarcomas (massive cancerous bone growths), cirrhosis of the liver, smokers' lungs and others. Some were identified as having a cancer, but I couldn't readily identify the location - makes you appreciate the job that those who screen for cancers visually do (like my Mum, who among other things, reads breast mammograms).
I'll put the later afternoon stuff in a second post.
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