Happy Midsummer!

Body Worlds: Animal Inside Out at Heureka

The blog's been kind of quiet in the last few months, sorry. I wish I could say it'll get better, but this pregnancy thing's hitting me hard. Turns out you lose a lot of your productivity when your haemoglobin drops by twenty points. Add to that all the normal aches and pains that pregnancy brings and the need to keep active and pay attention to my diet, there's not much room for anything else in my schedule, especially with the constant napping that borders on the ridiculous. I also want to spend time with my friends and family before the baby comes.  With this in mind, my father and I headed to Heureka science park with my nephew to check out the Body Worlds: Animal Inside Out exhibit.   

As you probably know, the original Body Worlds is an exhibition of dissected human bodies preserved by a process called plastination, which replaces the body's fat and water with liquid plastics to stop decay. Specimen preserved in this way retain most of the properties of the original. The material for Human Body Worlds comes from peopled donating their bodies to science with full consent and knowledge of the project, and the animals in this exhibition have been donated by zoos, university veterinary medicine programmes, and animal welfare associations, so no animals were harmed to create the exhibit. The idea is to educate people about animal anatomy and to promote the efforts to protect endangered species.

I found the exhibition interesting and informative, but if you're squeamish, this might not be the exhibition for you. I was a bit worried about how my nephew would react, but he was fine. As nearby schools visit the exhibition and the science center is meant for children, I felt confident that it wouldn't be too scary. There's no age limit, but maybe take a look at the website first if you're going with smaller children. The exhibition is running until October 29th if you want to go. Heureka is located in Vantaa, so it's not far from the airport or Helsinki city center.

There's other cool stuff too, as you can see.

You can do experiments on your own, and children can take part in a laboratory class with the staff twice a day for the price of the ticket. If you like Mythbusters, you'll love these. There are also activities like driving simulators, educational games, and building your own circuit boards, for example.

And rats playing basketball! (Only positive reinforcement is used in their training.)

You can even make your own coin at the Heureka mint. (It involves taking a photo and green lasers. Very cool.)

When you're done, you can visit the gift shop for all kind of fun gadgets and games. We tried out some astronaut ice cream, which is super weird. (And apparently a myth. Who knew?)

All in all, a fun day out. More info about the science center and upcoming exhibitions here: www.heureka.fi. 

Cutest Geeky Onesies

I promise this blog won't turn into all babies all the time, but I couldn't resist showing you guys a few of my favourite baby clothes so far. Being a responsible person, I got most of the baby stuff we need second hand, but I did get a couple of fun onesies in assorted sizes. 

This LOTR one is from Nerd Girl Tees

For the little Star Wars fan. (CutieButtsBoutique)

What would Baby Shepard wear? (Rocket Baby Clothing)

I pretty much want this in every size... (CutieButtsBoutique))

Labyrinth onesie! (CutieButtsBoutique))