Have you got the guts for Alimentary Adventures?
Do you know how your digestive system works? Why not explore the Alimentary Adventures, an exciting new inflatable 8m long walk-through tunnel, which mimics the human digestive system.
Guests (young and old) will be able to follow the journey that food takes all the way from the mouth through the digestive system. And what better way to learn about the digestive system, than to get up close and personal with it!
Visitors enter Alimentary Adventures through the mouth where they will hear and see the first stages of digestion - the mechanical and chemical breakdown of the food - they’ll see teeth, they’ll see the glands where saliva is made, and they can peek upwards to the brain which controls the whole process. They will also hear the sounds of food being chewed as they pass through the mouth area! Guests will then gaze at the oesophagus which leads to the stomach where digestion continues, and if anyone has an ulcer, they might be interested in meeting the bacterium Helicobacter pylori which can cause ulcers. They will be able to look out through the stomach wall at other organs which help to break down our food, such as the liver, gall bladder and pancreas which all secrete chemicals to promote digestion.
Visitors will walk on through the convoluted small intestine where digestion is completed, and where nutrient absorption takes place through the highly folded finger-like “villi” (children will not be able to resist poking at these projections, all adding to this exciting experience). In the large intestine, where water is absorbed, they will meet the trillions of bacteria living there and see the appendix, and can also see some signs of gastrointestinal disease, such as colitis or pre-cancerous polyps.
Alimentary Adventures was developed by the APC with funding from Science Foundation Ireland’s Discover programme (http://www.sfi.ie/discover-science-engineering-dse/) for Science Week 2013 (www.scienceweek.ie). Science Week 2013, 10th – 17th November 2013, is ‘Exploring the XTRA-Ordinary’ and inviting the nation to go behind the scenes of everyday life and Explore the XTRA-Ordinary processes that are taking place in front of our own eyes!
The new exhibit is being launched at Discovery, Cork’s interactive Science Exhibition in Cork City Hall which is open to the public this weekend on Saturday and Sunday 16-17 November from 2-6pm.
“Alimentary Adventures gives the public a first -hand experience of how food travels through, and nourishes the body, and also allows them to engage with the important research undertaken at the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre” said Mr Séan Sherlock TD. , Minister for Research and Innovation.
“Alimentary Adventures is a highly visual and tactile experience which will greatly enhance the engagement of the Irish public with science” added Professor Mark Ferguson, Director General of Science Foundation Ireland and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government.
Alimentary Adventures aims to increase public interest in and awareness of all things gastrointestinal – digestion, microbiota, healthy eating and lifestyle as well as increasing appreciation and knowledge of biology, nutrition and health.
15 November 2013
