“You, The Exhibit”

The center attraction of “You, The Exhibit” at Health Museum of Houston is — surprise — you. This is the first new permanent exhibit the museum has put together since its opening 12 years ago, and it makes the most of the latest technological advances.

There’s the Body Scanner, which lets you see your internal organs, and the Age-O-Matic, which lets you see what you’ll look like in 20 or 30 years, including the changes that are the result of bad habits like smoking and overeating. The Feature Change lets you see yourself as a different gender and ethnicity. Are you a white male? Check yourself out as a black female. You also can find out your statistical lifespan at the Life-Span-O-Meter and discover how changing your outward appearance affects the way people respond to you in Who Are You?

One of the neatest is the Postcard Confession, in which you write a secret on a postcard and drop it in the slot (according to the museum, releasing secrets releases stress). Dozens of other postcards are up on a bulletin board nearby. During our visit, postcard confessions included “I want to be a pirete”(sic), “I like to dress up as monsters,” and “I’m pregnant. Again.” Oh my.

Don’t forget the museum’s regular attractions, either. During our visit, an eye was being dissected in one room, while just around the corner was a pair of pig’s lungs showing the difference between a healthy and smoke-damaged organ. (How they got the pig to smoke, they couldn’t tell us.) 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays, and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Health Museum, 1515 Hermann Drive. For information, call 713–521–1515 or visit www.thehealth-museum.org. $5 to $7, with free admission 2 to 7 p.m. on Thursdays.
Starts: July 3. Daily, 2008