Articles

Our words and pictures explore the connections between science, medicine, life and art. Dive into one no matter where in the world you are.

1-20
Ancient comic by Rob Bidder (detail)
  • Comic

Ancient

When does something stop being old and begin the transition into ancient?

Part of Body Squabbles

Collage illustration showing the Peckham Health centre. People standing and sitting on the site of the indoor pool and swimming in it.
  • Serial
Part5

Two health centres, two ideologies

Two futuristic, light-filled buildings aimed to bring forward-looking healthcare to city dwellers. But the principles behind each were very different.

Part of The Architecture Diaries

Colour photograph of an anatomy manuscript engraved by Gautier D'Agoty. The manuscript has been folded out from its book, and the head of the female body depicted rests upon a cushion. Underneath the manuscript is a rumpled, vivid red satin fabric.
  • Essay

Printing the body

The 18th century saw multiple technical developments in both printing and medicine. Colourful collaborations ensued – to the benefit of growing ranks of medical students.
  • Image gallery

Deadly stinks and life-saving aromas in plague-stricken London

In the plague-ravaged London of 1665, could perfume really save your life?

Part of From Our Collections

Empathy comic by Rob Bidder (detail)
  • Comic

Empathy

Putting yourself in someone else's shoes might only make it harder for both of you to walk.

Part of Body Squabbles

  • Serial
Part4

The tower in fiction, film and life

The high-rise estates born of postwar idealism soon became symbols of crime and squalor. But after one terrible tragedy, public bodies are being forced to rethink our towers.

Part of The Architecture Diaries

Photograph of a coloured lithograph showing a withered tree bearing apples labelled with sins; representing the life of sin c. 1870, after J. Bakewell.
  • Essay

Why all of us are evil

Science proves that we’re all capable of evil: your secret fantasy about killing someone you hate is surprisingly normal. But the way to better moral choices is to fight emotional instinct.
Image of a small ivory model of a woman with removable mid-drift revealing organs and foetus in womb beneath. She lies on red velvet.
  • Image gallery

Exposing the secrets of the human body

Scientists, artists, and philosophers have long studied our anatomy to try to discover what it means to be human.

Part of From Our Collections

Exercise comic by Rob Bidder
  • Comic

Exercise

Exercise to music to stimulate both your mood and your muscles.

Part of Body Squabbles

Artist's montage showing the garden suburb of Bedford Park within a snowglobe, with historical figures looking on
  • Serial
Part3

Building a dream in the garden suburbs

In the late 19th century a ‘garden suburb’ promised a retreat from London’s dirt and crowds. See how this new concept was developed to appeal to the health concerns of the literary classes.

Part of The Architecture Diaries

Illustration of a GP's office with a large and demanding patient
  • Essay

Why some patients make my heart sink

Instead of getting nowhere with certain demanding, manipulative patients, our anonymous GP wonders if there’s a way to help them.

Part of The Secret GP

  • Image gallery

Faces of the NHS

Meet some of the exceptional workers whose careers span the seven decades of the NHS. Their portraits and words reveal their passion for medicine and for taking care of people.
Migraine comic by Rob Bidder (detail)
  • Comic

Migraine

Migraines are earthquakes in your head and their seismic effects can feel just as devastating.

Part of Body Squabbles

Artist's montage showing model villages built by industrialists.
  • Serial
Part2

Homes for the hives of industry

By building workers’ villages, industry titans demonstrated both philanthropy and control. Employees’ health improved, while rulebooks told them how to live ideal lives.

Part of The Architecture Diaries

Photograph from the mid-20th Century Peckham Pioneer Centre, showing a women holding a baby in the foreground, and behind three women who appear to be conversing beside three cribs containing babies.
  • Essay

Desperate housewives and suburban neurosis

Discover how a pioneering health centre replaced housewives’ supposedly empty home lives with a social space that encouraged healthy child rearing.
  • Image gallery

Fake news in the 17th century

An uncanny resemblance to today’s Twitter tiffs characterises a 17th-century argument about demons. Read what happened when the printing presses went into overdrive.

Part of From Our Collections

Tonsilloliths comic by Rob Bidder (detail)
  • Comic

Tonsilloliths

There are some smelly cellular monsters living in the crypts and crevices of your tonsils.

Part of Body Squabbles

Artist's montage showing Dickens recording details of slum life in London.
  • Serial
Part1

How slums make people sick

A newly gentrified corner of Bermondsey leaves little clue to its less salubrious history. But a few intrepid writers recorded the details of existence in one of London’s most squalid slums.

Part of The Architecture Diaries

Photo of dark sky with clouds and light
  • Book extract

Winter blues and the story of SAD

In ‘Chasing the Sun‘ Linda Geddes reveals why for some people, winter is literally depressing, showing how we first came to recognise seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Part of Inside Our Books

  • Image gallery

Challenging stereotypes of people with learning disabilities

Explore the voices and photographs of people with and without learning disabilities who have worked with creative arts company Heart n Soul over the last 30 years.