Models go head-to-head with themselves…
Thu 4 March 2010
Models go head-to-head with themselves…
Five models, ranging from six years old to 70, will be in At-Bristol on Wednesday to see their own heads as resin models for the first time, that form a new exhibit ‘Weigh a Brain’ that is part of the new £1.5 million exhibition ‘All About Us’ that opens in February 2011.
This week is the internationally celebrated Brain Awareness Week which At-Bristol always takes parts in through activities that highlight how our brain functions, and the importance of it. The ‘Weigh a Brain’ exhibit is a very straightforward design allowing the visitor to literally take a brain out of heads of various ages and weigh them so see just how much our brains weigh as we age – the result is very surprising to most people…just how much our brains weigh, and also the changes that occur as we age.
The models had to sit for an hour with straws up their noses to allow for breathing, then have a cast taken of their entire head. The youngest person is only six years old then his 11 year old brother, a family friend and finally their grandfather to complete the different generations. They are all males to keep the consistency of the same sex development and the average size and weight of a male brain at each particular age – there is also a baby’s head but this one was moulded from a doll (there is an image below that captures the first stage of the heads before they were made out of resin as they are now – also minus the models!)
To continue the theme of Brain Awareness Week, the Bristol Neuroscience Group are in At-Bristol every day this week running activities such as marking on a swimming hat where different parts of the brain are, and then you can put the cap on and see for yourself how your own brain works, and also making neurons from pipe cleaners.
The models are happy to talk to the media and will be here from 11am on Wednesday 17th. If you would like to meet them, and meet the Neuroscientists, please call me (contact details are above and below).
For more information on At-Bristol’s latest exhibitions log on to: www.at-bristol.org.uk or call Bookings on: 0845 345 1235.
ENDS
For further press information, please contact Zoë Fox in the At-Bristol press office on: 0117 9157 152 or email: press@at-bristol.org.uk
