Body Worlds opens at science museum tomorrow

The This weekend, why not head over the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see some skinned dead people? Tomorrow's the opening day for Body Worlds 3, an exhibit of 200 preserved, mostly skinless human cadavers in various poses that is premiering in Houston.

Body Worlds exhibits — the other two are currently in Toronto and Philadelphia — have drawn more than 18 million people in cities around the world since they started touring 10 years ago. The bodies in the show are preserved using plastination, a process developed by German anatomist Gunther von Hagens in 1977. During the process, much of which is done in China, bodies are preserved with formaldehyde, then fluids and fats are removed. The bodies are then injected with acetone, a solvent found in nail polish remover; the acetone is later replaced with a rubber mixture including silicon rubber and epoxy, which is cured and hardened with gas, light or heat. (You can read all about it on the Body Works website.)

Body Worlds has gotten its share of criticism over the years, but it looks like Houston's religious and medical community is being pretty nonchalant about the exhibit. Check it out for yourself — Body Worlds runs through Sept. 4. Tickets are $22 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and $15 between 5 and 9 p.m. (museum members get in for $13.50 during the day and $12.50 at night). You can reserve tickets online through HMNS.

(In other cadaver exhibit news, Bodies, a Body Worlds spinoff that was scheduled to open at The Health Museum in April has been canceled, apparently because Body Worlds was opening a couple of months earlier just down the street. Who knew that would ever be a problem?)