![\"UNSW\"](\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Screenshot-2020-06-22-at-10.57.30-Edited.png\")
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Staff at the Museum of Human Disease at UNSW Sydney have used their lockdown time wisely, by creating a virtual version of their collection of real organs and body parts, which constitute the only publicly accessible medical pathology collection in Australia. It homes 2500+ specimens like lungs, brains and body tissue that have been affected by disease.<\/p>\n
The virtual exhibit comes with a warning – it ain’t pretty – but as Museum Director Mr Derek Williamson points out, there’s no better time to understand how diseases like cancer, heart disease and obesity affect the body.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so important to understand how diseases work \u2013 especially during a pandemic,\u201d says Mr Williamson. \u201cBy learning more about past outbreaks and how they affect the body, we can also learn why some diseases are coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n
The museum was started in 1959 by UNSW\u2019s first professor of pathology, Donald Wilhelm. Back then, the specimens were used as training resources to help future doctors recognise and understand disease.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThere weren\u2019t blood tests for most diseases in those days,\u201d says Mr Williamson. \u201cIf a doctor wanted to know what was going on inside a person, they had to open them up and work it out from there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The museum has since opened its doors to the general public, and is still used as a training resource for medical students. It also runs school tours \u2013 up to 12,000 high school students visit it each year. Again to reiterate that warning, the displays can have significant impact on visitors.<\/span><\/p>\n “We\u2019ve had people visit the museum as smokers but leave as non-smokers. They\u2019ve contacted us \u2013 months later \u2013 to say that the display stuck with them. This is the power of objects. Seeing the real thing can help bring home the anti-smoking messages they\u2019ve seen elsewhere.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe hope that the museum \u2013 and now, the virtual museum \u2013 can help more people learn about their bodies, how they can be affected by disease, and how to best look after them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Tickets to the virtual museum are currently free for UNSW students and staff, while for all other visitors, entry is by donation to support the work of the museum – $5 is suggested. It works on all devices and is VR-enabled, but performance will depend on your device and internet access. Tickets can be booked here via<\/span> Eventbrite<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n For the launch month only (until the end of June) you can select a free ticket option valid for that day only. If you’re up for it…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Staff at the Museum of Human Disease at UNSW Sydney have used their lockdown time wisely, by creating a virtual version of their collection of real organs and body parts, which constitute the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":8663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,98,3,48,5,92],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-science","category-biology","category-culture","category-health","category-medicine","category-nutrition"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8662"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8670,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662\/revisions\/8670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}