NATURE AS MEDICINE

Soon the Saint Louis Science Center will be refreshing its Life Science Lab Atrium!

In this newly designed area, content will be centered around how scientists harness nature to improve health. One of the three centrally located towers in the Atrium will focus on how nature has been used to provide medicine in the past, and another will showcase the ways modern science (specifically our ability to sequence DNA) has allowed us to research medicines in animals without harming them.

“Animal venoms are a big focus here,” explained Life Science Senior Educator Dakota Price, adding that many currently used pharmaceuticals were derived from studying the venoms of snakes, spiders, scorpions and more.

The third tower will illustrate ways nature can inspire new medical tools and techniques. Here, guests can learn about surgical bandages, medicine delivery tools, tissue grafting tools and more–all inspired by animals.

“My hope for the space is to introduce guests to biomedical sciences in a way they don't expect and to hopefully inspire a sense of connection between humans and the rest of the living world. A lot of the challenges we're looking to solve in medicine have already been solved by nature, and we're at a place where we have the technology and understanding to harness that while still protecting those other living things.” –Dakota Price, LIFE SCIENCES SENIOR EDUCATOR