Designing Hyperrealistic Body Parts, From Eyeballs To Placentas
Designing Hyperrealistic Body Parts, From Eyeballs To Placentas  
Podcast: Science Friday
Published On: Tue May 13 2025
Description: Medical sculptor Damon Coyle walks around with a Mary Poppins bag of body parts. Fake ones, that is. At the University of Missouri, his lab creates hyperrealistic body parts designed to help medical providers practice for real-world surgeries and procedures. They make things like lifelike arms for practicing blood draws or a set of eyeballs for ocular trauma training. On stage in Columbia, Missouri, Damon talks with Host Flora Lichtman about how he creates these eerily realistic body parts and how they’re used.Guest: Damon Coyle, medical sculptor and innovation specialist at the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri. Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.  Subscribe to this podcast. Follow our show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Bluesky @scifri and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.