The Da Vinci Science Center and St. Luke's University Health Network have announced a partnership in the "Year of the Human Body" project, featuring the "Bodies Revealed."

The exhibition, to open Oct. 6 and continue through Feb. 10, 2013, uses anatomical specimens to take visitors on a three-dimensional tour of the human body.

The traveling exhibition, which has attracted nearly 15 million visitors in locations across the United States and around the world, offers a look inside the skeletal, muscular, reproductive, respiratory, circulatory and other systems of the human body.

Many of the carefully-preserved whole body specimens are dissected in vivid athletic poses, allowing the visitor to relate to everyday activities. Other specimens illustrate the damage caused to internal organs by unhealthy behaviors, such as a healthy lung displayed next to a black lung ravaged by smoking.

The "Year of the Human Body" project is a coordinated presentation of visitor exhibits, public experiences, outreach programs, and industry ventures intended to broaden interest and participation in medical careers. Capital BlueCross is the project's Contributing Sponsor.

The project begins this month with public and outreach programs.

The "Year of the Human Body" also includes the "Grossology," May - September 2013, at the Da Vinci Science Center.

There will be visitor activities at the DaVinci's "Inquiry Island," programs by partner organizations in eastern Pennsylvania, and a public mini-medical school experience produced by the Temple-St. Luke's regional medical school in Spring 2013.

Temple-St. Luke's Regional Medical School students and St. Luke's employees will participate throughout the year, including service as facilitators of the "Bodies Revealed" exhibition.

A "Year of the Human Body" web site has been created by community partner Discover Lehigh Valley at: yearofthehumanbody.org