The American Museum of Natural History's special exhibit The Secret World Inside You takes the museum-goer on what would otherwise be an impossible journey, giving them a chance to walk through organ systems and come face to face with life-size microorganisms and immune cells. After walking down a dark mirrored passageway filled with seemingly endless glittering lights, reminiscent of Yayoi Kusama's Fireflies on the Water, you emerge in a brightly coloured maze of floor-to-ceiling webbing that can only be described as ‘tissue’. The signs inform you that the bright pink swirls represent skin, and you are now shrunk down to microbial size, navigating the labyrinth of various anatomical niches and ecosystems that the microbiota colonize.
The exhibit has been designed to engage participants and educate about the microbiota — the total collection of small (‘micro’) life (‘biota’) that inhabits every nook and cranny of this planet and our bodies. The microbiota is made up of bacteria, fungi, viruses, archaea, and eukaryotic parasites, although the bacteria clearly take the main stage here. An informative video opens the exhibit, with cinematic representations of macro- and microscopic life on this planet, introducing important concepts of ecology, diversity, and conservation.
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