Some of our older exhibits date back to the 1970's and we've got an
example of "artistic" design that confuses people. We have a stylized
sculpture of Leuweenhoek, discoverer of the microscope, looking
through one at a spider. To illustrated the idea of magnification,
the spider is about 3 feet wide. Of course, hundreds of people think
it is a real spider.
Mike Rhode
National Museum of Health and Medicine