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“The Amazing Journey from Egg to Adult”: An embryology exhibition at the National Museum of Nature and Science

2018; Wiley; Volume: 60; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/dgd.12428

1440-169X

Yoshiko Takahashi, Hiroyuki Takeda,

Reproductive Health and Technologies

The multimedia science display, “The Amazing Journey from Egg to Adult” was exhibited at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, from 4 April through 11 June 2017 (Figure 1). The aim of the exhibition was to demonstrate to visitors who have few opportunities to experience developmental biology how our body develops its complex organs and different cell types from a single fertilized egg cell. The exhibition was jointly supported by the National Museum and the Japanese Society of Developmental Biologists (JSDB), as part of its 50th anniversary celebration. The exhibition received a record-breaking 224,901 visitors (3,627 visitors per day). At the entrance of the exhibition hall, visitors encountered a huge boiled egg-like obstacle, on which a movie of a live E4 chicken embryo was projected with a beating heart and circulating blood (Figure 2a). This could successfully attract them to get in the hall, where a human CG embryo highlighted the beginnings of our lives. The exhibition's contents were divided into two parts, an introductory portion followed by an advanced one. In the introductory part, visitors could observe the embryonic origins of the brain, limb buds, guts and bones of chicken embryos under the microscope (Figure 2b). In the advanced part, developmental mechanisms were explained with the example of Spemann's organizer. The visitors could also learn modern experimental approaches to study the developmental mechanisms at the cellular and molecular levels. After visiting several advanced booths about germ cells, planarian regeneration, plant development, and the epigenetic regulation of DNA, visitors saw that developmental biology yielded several Nobel laureates including Dr. Shinya Yamanaka. Lastly, the achievements of three very important Japanese developmental biologists—Drs Katsuma Dan, Tokiondo Okada, and Masatoshi Takeichi—were presented along with the first commercial model of phase-contrast microscope, which Dr. Jean C. Dan (wife of Katsuma Dan) brought into Japan from the USA. To further attract and inform visitors, explanatory models were also prepared. One was for Hox genes and body organization (Figure 2c), and the other was a model showing the simple rudiments of digestive organs. In this way, people were able to follow easily the essence of developmental biology—that the body formation is regulated by the genes we inherit from our parents, and that complicated organs start from simple rudiments. Visitors were also guided to visit another display of marine invertebrates in a separate hall, arranged by Dr. Namikawa. The main exhibition was accompanied by a variety of entertaining events: public talks by developmental biologists, laboratory courses (with living chicken embryos) for children and high school teachers, and a quiz and answer with a prize button badge on which embryos of various animals were printed. Notably, a 54-page special brochure was provided free to each visitor. The first half of the brochure contained the items of the exhibition, and the second half served as a “photo album” displaying magnificent images of a variety of embryos, which were provided by members of JSDB. These photographs were also printed in clear plastic folders that visitors could buy in the museum gift shop. It took almost 2 years for the organizing committee to plan and prepare all of these activities. The committee members, who had never experienced the work of preparing a museum exhibition, gathered voluntarily and were enthusiastically engaged. We were driven by our passion to transmit the charm and beauty of embryos to the public. During the preparation, however, we were confronted with difficulties in exhibiting the dynamical processes of development to people in a way they could easily understand. We were very lucky that Mrs. Mitsuko Kudo, a talented science communicator, volunteered to join us and helped us greatly to accomplish the exhibition. Through the exhibition, we could learn how to transmit scientific achievements to the public, which we otherwise would not have learnt. JSDB was the first academic society that undertook a co-sponsorship with the museum since the museum was founded in 1871. We hope that the style of this joint exhibition will be followed by other academic societies, so that outreach activities in science will flourish in a new wave.