Marquette students are sometimes accused of staying in the "Marquette Bubble"—not really exploring Milwaukee outside of campus-related events. As the new semester gets underway, we encourage students to broaden their horizons and consider taking a more active interest in the civic and art opportunities the city has to offer.

"Body Worlds: The Anatomical Exhibition of Real Human Bodies" opens at the Milwaukee Public Museum, 800 W. Wells St., this Friday and runs through May 31. The highly anticipated exhibit is expected to be the biggest to come to the museum since "The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt" in mid-2004. It is expected to draw a record number of visitors to the museum and Marquette students should be a part of that number.

The museum has experienced financial trouble in recent years, but now comes the perfect opportunity for students to provide a little fiscal support to an institution that exists for the education and entertainment of our greater Milwaukee community.

This world-renowned exhibit allows visitors to learn about anatomy, health and physiology by viewing preserved human bodies. Some of the featured specimens demonstrate the physical benefits of a healthy lifestyle, while others show the consequences of unhealthy habits—such as a smoker's lung and an alcoholic's liver.

"Body Worlds" features entire, anatomically-correct human bodies as well as individual organs and transparent body slices. All these items are preserved with special plastics through the process of plastination. This unique process, invented by German doctor Gunther von Hagens, replaces water in the body's tissues with fluid plastics that harden, allowing the specimens to be fixed into life-like poses to demonstrate various muscle movements.

For an admission price of just $10.50 with a student ID, the exhibit provides students with the opportunity to learn about their inner workings, and provides a unique way to give back to the community by supporting the museum. Making a trip to see Body Worlds is not all give. We think students can truly take back something too.

We realize the high-stress pressure cooker environment of college is not always conducive to optimal lifestyle habits, but hope the exhibit will encourage students to make healthier choices in the new year, by demonstrating the crippling consequences to the human body of excessive binge drinking, smoking, poor eating habits and lack of physical exercise.

A shorter walk from campus than to the Bradley Center, this historic event provides students a relatively cheap chance to support the community while enjoying themselves during an intellectually stimulating visit.