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.

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Black and white etching showing a large pile of bodies being dragged into a pit. People who appear from their robes to be monks perform rites or anxiously grasp bibles.
  • In pictures

Pepys and the plague

Through its long history, London has survived some enormous epidemics. During the 1665 Great Plague of London, the city burned, shops closed, the streets emptied and bodies piled up. Read Samuel Pepys’s account of how the city pulled through.

Part of Inside Our Collections

Isolation comic by Rob Bidder (detail)
  • Comic

Isolation

Quarantine translation: terror with undertones of boredom and low level anxiety.

Part of Body Squabbles

Photographic triptych showing the head and shoulders of three women.
  • Photo story

Voices of the NHS

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, when millions of us are especially grateful for our NHS, hear the voices of nine exceptional health workers explaining their passion for medicine and for taking care of others.

Photographic panorama showing a street scene with part of a road, a pavement, the handrail of a bridge and in the distance industrial brick buildings. The panorama is mirrored down its vertical centre line except that a small human figure in a red coat standing on the pavement looking away from the camera appears in the left half, but not in the right half.
  • Article

Living in limbo when a loved one is missing

When someone goes missing, loved ones are thrown into a state akin to constant grieving; waiting for news, living in hope. Novelist Bev Thomas describes how they try to cope and carry on.

Photograph showing a performer on a stage in a small theatre. The performer is dressed in a shiny gold suit. Their right hand is holding a microphone to their mouth. In their left hand they are holding a white cane. Their mouth and eye brows are covered in blue glitter make-up
  • Article

The politics and power of audio-description

Traditional theatre audio-description often lets down artists and audiences. But, done well, it has the potential to be a force for creativity as well as accessibility.

Part of Art, activism and access

Illustration in black, purple and red tones, showing a person sitting in an armchair in a room. At their feet is a ruckled rug with things hidden under it. To the left is a small bookcase and house plant.
  • Article

Stigma, schizophrenia and being transgender

When he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, Ashley McFord-Allister discovered that the medical world will not continue gender confirmation treatment while treating a mental health condition. Here he exposes the prejudice behind this attitude.

Part of Broken hearts not broken brains

Illustration in black, purple and red tones, showing a person lying on the floor with their arms clasped around their head. Surrounding them are letters, envelopes, text messages and leaflets.
  • Article

Happy Joy Smile

Drawn from real-life experiences, this short story depicts a character negotiating the UK’s current mental health system. Discover what happens as they encounter waiting lists, sketchy healthcare and punitive government bureaucracy.

Part of Broken hearts not broken brains

Black and white photograph showing a man standing in the middle of a living room holding a cigarette to his mouth. The room is lit by a single ceiling light, the curtains are drawn across the window. On the wall behind the man sheets of paper are stuck to the wall.
  • Photo story

The man who remembers everything

Tilney1 can remember his life in minute detail, but can’t control the incessant intrusion of thoughts and images from the past. As cuts to mental health services isolate him more and more, a crisis approaches.

Part of Broken hearts not broken brains

Illustration in black, purple and red tones, showing a woman standing to the right of frame look off into the distance. Behind her a group of 4 people are in close conversation. It looks like she is excluded.
  • Article

Building resilience in a racist world

With the resurgence of racism in today’s UK, Louisa Adjoa Parker reflects on the trauma of growing up in a racist society and explores how victims could begin to heal.

Part of Broken hearts not broken brains

Illustration in black, purple and red tones, showing a cross section of an ear revealing all the internal elements. Inside the skull end of the cross section is a grainy image of faces in a crowd. Outside the ear is a drawing of a figure.
  • Article

Cracks that let the light in

Rai Waddingham lives with voices other people cannot hear. Here she describes how she has come to accept, understand and calm her voices, and to acknowledge her strength.

Part of Broken hearts not broken brains

Embarrassment comic by Rob Bidder (detail)
  • Comic

Embarrassment

Dealing with embarrassment can be hard. Turning it on yourself is harder.

Part of Body Squabbles

Illustration using a collage technique of archive material, etchings and drawings. The image shows a scene made up of mainly green and yellow hues. To the right of centre is a woman sitting on the ground a book open on her lap. In front of her a black and white dog wearing a red jacket with the words 'service dog' written on the side, rest their front paws on her leg. A white spiralling line links their foreheads together. To the left of the illustration flowers and exotic birds rest on branches. In the background the faint front elevation of a building can be seen, over which a large golden illustration of a sun radiates outwards.
  • Serial
Part6

The seizure dog

Aparna Nair's dog Charlie made her feel safe in the world. His uncanny ability to sense when she was about to experience a seizure also gave her an unexpected ally in her struggles with epilepsy.

Part of Epilepsy and me

Black and white photograph of a concrete urban environment with an image of the same man repeated 5 times across the image. In each instance he is highlighted by a red glow. He appears to be passing a verbal message along to line to himself.
  • Book extract

The science of why things spread

From deadly pandemics to viral tweets, Adam Kucharski explores what makes something contagious.

Part of Inside Our Books

Photograph of an open book on a wooden background, showing a page with a coloured engraving from the 16th century depicting a person's head and neck ruff. On their head is a red mask which has small holes exposing the outside edges of their eyes and larger holes exposing their ears, nose and mouth.
  • In pictures

The eyes have it

In 1583, eye specialist Georg Bartisch published a book detailing the treatments he’d developed for various eye disorders. Today his approach seems to mix surprising innovation with entirely contemporary religious judgement.

Part of Inside Our Collections

Wind comic by Rob Bidder (detail)
  • Comic

Wind

Is the wind against you, or are you against the wind?

Part of Body Squabbles

Illustration using collage techniques. Image shows a scene made up of mainly red and purple hues. In the centre of the image is a tv screen with the head of a woman, her eyes replaced with white dots and horns growing out of her head. To the right of the tv a woman in black and white looks towards the screen her left hand holding her chin. Beneath the screen a man reads a newspaper. To the left of the screen an group of people look towards the screen, one has a camera, another clasps his head with his hand. Around the border of the image are palm leaves and a some flowers in a ceramic vase.
  • Serial
Part5

The ‘epileptic’ in art and science

From scarred outsiders in literature to the cold voyeurism of medical films and photography, people who experience seizures and epilepsy are rarely shown in a compassionate light in popular culture.

Part of Epilepsy and me

Photograph of two oil paintings propped against the walls in the corner of a dark room, on a wooden floor. To the right is a recessed window with a white fabric curtain hanging in front of the glass.
  • Article

The painter, the psychiatrist and a fashion for hysteria

A dramatic painting brings a famous event in medical history alive. But it also tells a tale about the health preoccupations of the time.

Print work of a pair of hands sharpening a rod on a lathe.
  • In pictures

Working well or sick of work?

Sometimes we literally get sick of our jobs. Discover how researchers and medics throughout history have made connections between our work and our wellbeing.

Part of Inside Our Collections

Bald comic by Rob Bidder (detail).
  • Comic

Bald

Don't let your selfish hair mask your cranial beauty

Part of Body Squabbles

Illustration using collage techniques. Image shows a scene made up of mainly red and blue hues. In the centre of the image stands a woman on an ornate pedestal, naked from the waist down. Her left hand rest on the top of a superimposed illustration of a baby in the womb. Either side of her feet is a green domed light to the right and a red one to the left. Seated either side of her are two Victorian clan men reclining in comfortable chairs staring at her, one holding a cigar. In the background can be seen the word 'Eugenics' and floral and palm leaf motifs.
  • Serial
Part4

The ‘undesirable epileptic’

Abused in her marriage for being 'a sick woman', Aparna Nair looked to history to make sense of the response to her epilepsy. She discovered how centuries of fear and discrimination were often endorsed by science and legislation.

Part of Epilepsy and me