On June 26, 2007, we took a field trip to the UA's Computer Center to visit the Arizona Laboratory for Immersive Visualization Environments, which is commonly known as The Cave.

The Cave was composed of four white screens with one screen on the floor, to the left, to the right and in front of us, which resembled the inside of a box missing a side and a lid. Putting on special 3D glasses, we were able to explore a new world of science, which employs Wii technology. With one of us operating the controls of the 3D image, we were led into a new world with no limits. We flew into a brightly colored human heart through the Superior Vena Cava and observed the inner walls of the right atrium. It was as if our entire group was shrunk by Wayne Szalinski's Shrink Machine and then placed into a miniature ship that was just small enough to travel through the arteries and veins of the human body. Mesmerized by the Cave's realistic images, we felt we could just reach out with our hands and feel the soft tissue of the heart. As our controller drove us into the heart's wall, we even flinched to avoid colliding into the muscular wall. One after another, we traveled through a fly's brain, through the human body, and into a recreation of an Italian ruin.

The Cave's amazing visual effects tickled us. With such amazing views as these, we eagerly looked forward to visiting the Cave again

Kimberly Silken, HSRAP Student in Dr. John Szivek's lab, Surgery/Orthopedic Research Lab