Physical Education

She’s extremely leggy, with more brains than could fill a minivan. On the other hand, she is incorrigibly exhibitionistic and weighs 7,000 pounds.

Tess, short for “test dummy,” is a 50-foot transparent robot created by Attraction Services Inc. to teach visitors to the California Museum of Science and Industry the mechanics and mysteries of their bodies.

The larger-than-life lady will be the featured attraction at the museum’s new “World of Life” exhibit beginning in February.

“Tess is going to help make science more fun and accessible to people,” said Ann Muscat, the museum’s deputy director, as Tess was unveiled Wednesday.

About 45 workers with the Santa Clarita-based special-effects company used fiberglass, silicone, plastic and steel over a four-year period to make Tess look like a giant woman. Her feet are the size of Roman bathtubs, her fist is larger than a refrigerator.

With the help of pneumatic pumps and pulleys, she is able to move her limbs and even control a six-foot joystick.

Tess’ scalp is translucent to show her ample brain. When she speaks, not only does her mouth move, but the stretchy silicone skin around her jawline contracts and slackens in a lifelike manner.

Combine the robotic replica of Abraham Lincoln at Disneyland with the mass of any museum’s gray-whale exhibit--that’s Tess.

She knows the physiology of her own body and everyone else’s. She explains it, using an actress’ taped voice, in simple terms that museum curators hope everyone will understand.

She can explain homeostasis, the stable environment that the body’s organs work to maintain. She can demonstrate what happens to water, oxygen and food when bodies exercise, Muscat said.

Moving a six-foot-high joystick with her hands, she points to her skinless legs, revealing bone and muscle. Small strobe lights twinkle in blue-plastic tubing to represent blood coursing through her veins. To get her to do that took 45 people about seven months of trial and error.

John Banach, the technician in charge of building Tess, said five people worked on the plastic and silicone that made up the skin. Two sculptors formed the feet and hands. Wednesday, technicians were trying to fix her heart and lungs.

“You can’t send out for this kind of stuff,” Banach said. “All the materials had to be made here. A project like this involves a lot of problem-solving.”

Soon, Tess will be taken apart and reassembled in an eight-foot pit in the museum, which is changing its name to the California Science Center in February.

Tess will star in a 15-minute show at the 17,500-square-foot “World of Life” exhibit, which will seat 120 spectators. The exhibit also features Tess’ partner, Walt, a man who appears in a cartoon shown on TV by her side.

Tess makes 12 movements with her head, including blinking, turning her head and moving her mouth. “I wish she could do a few more moves,” Banach said.

Why build this giant woman?

“We wanted women to be able to see themselves in Tess,” Muscat said. “Women sometimes are intimidated with math and science, and we wanted to show that they can be key figures in the math and science world.”

In fact, the museum wanted Tess to be a mechanical Everywoman. The technicians who designed Tess used a computer-generated photograph printed on the cover of Time magazine several years ago that combined the features of every ethnic group as the model for her face.

Tess has skin the color of ivory; large brown eyes, a small flared nose and high cheekbones.

“We purposely wanted to create a face with multicultural features,” said Dr. Dave Combs, the museum’s life-science curator. “One of our slogans is, ‘From apple trees to honeybees, we’re more alike than you think.’ ”