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Lynne Lamberg

JAMA. 2005;293:2847-2848.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Washington, DC—A schoolboy visiting the National Museum of Health and Medicine (NMHM) halts before a skeleton his own height. Examining his hand, he wiggles his fingers experimentally. He bends to squeeze his knee, and studies the bare bones again, as if peering into a magic mirror that has stripped away his soft tissues.

Moments later, he joins a classmate gazing at a fetal preparation in a jar. "That’s fake," the other boy asserts.

"No, it’s real," interjects Adrianne Noe, PhD, NMHM’s director, who overhears the boys while showing a visitor around the museum. "Everything here is real," she tells them.

Not quite everything.

The Human Body Revealed, an exhibit at the museum through mid-August 2005, offers novel views of the body’s internal landscape—views that cannot be seen in real life, although they are anatomically accurate even at the cellular level.

In some works, transparent skin or cut-away . . . [Full Text of this Article]

AN INTRICATE PUZZLE