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28 results
  • In pictures
  • In pictures

Stories of Asian palm-leaf manuscripts

| Adrian Plau

Wellcome’s Adrian Plau shares some the stories behind the Asian palm-leaf manuscripts in our collections. He reveals how British colonialism impacted this special form of knowledge transmission and the challenges involved in unearthing each manuscript’s origins and historical journey to Wellcome Collection.

  • Article
  • Article

“People see the disability but forget the ability”

| Sarifa PatelBenjamin Gilbert

I’m a disabled Asian woman, and mother of four. I’m trying to show people that we have to talk about disability if we want things to change.

  • Article
  • Article

Identifying skin lightening agents in cosmetics

| Ngunan AdamuAmaal Said

Could your moisturiser be damaging your health? If it contains skin-lightening agents, the answer is yes. But this is an area where consumers definitely do not have the upper hand.

  • Article
  • Article

What is violence?

| Laura BuiJessa Fairbrother

Criminologist Laura Bui explores her early understanding of violence and outlines its definition and wider consequences.

  • Article
  • Article

The eye of darshan

| Adrian Plau

The Hindu concept of darshan means “divine revelation”, but it’s also about the multilayered ways in which we see the world around us. Adrian Plau explains how one image in a Panjabi manuscript relates to darshan, and why it’s so striking.

  • Article
  • Article

On nature cures and taking the waters

| Jessica J LeeFaye Heller

When chilly outdoor swims began to chip away at her depression, Jessica J Lee was drawn to a closer study of the complex natural world around her.

  • Article
  • Article

We need less ‘sickle cell warriors’ and more allies

| Cheryl TelferMaïa WalcottBlack Ballad

Rejecting the epithet “warrior”, Cheryl Telfer describes the pervasive effect sickle cell disease has on her life, and calls for more people to donate blood to help sicklers.

  • Article
  • Article

What is structural violence?

| Laura BuiJessa Fairbrother

Structural violence is seemingly invisible. But its tentacles have invaded every part of many people’s lives, thoughts, experiences and expectations, shaping them in ways they don’t even realise.

  • Article
  • Article

Indian botanicals and heritage wars

| Sita Reddy

Colonial botanical texts, as astonishingly beautiful as they are, may cast very dark shadows.

  • Article
  • Article

Yoga adapts to time and place

| Lalita Kaplish

A yoga teacher in 1930s India inspired today’s transnational practice with his spectacular fusion of tradition and innovation.

  • Article
  • Article

Mapping the body

These intricate anatomical drawings show how Ayurveda practitioners have explored the human body and how it works.

  • Article
  • Article

Chillies and the trouble with Scoville

| Danny Birchall

Measuring the heat of these peppers can leave you a little lukewarm.

  • Article
  • Article

Colonialism and the origins of skin bleaching

| Ngunan AdamuAmaal Said

The widespread practice of skin bleaching was heavily influenced by the Western colonisation and slavery of African and South Asian countries. Ngunan Adamu explores this toxic history.

  • Article
  • Article

The search for a cure for endometriosis

| Jaipreet VirdiAnne Howeson

Discover how a white American doctor’s experimental operations on black female slaves laid the foundations for modern gynaecological surgery.

  • Article
  • Article

Intelligence testing, race and eugenics

| Nazlin BhimaniGergo Varga

Specious ideas and assumptions about intelligence that were born during the great flourishing of eugenics well over 100 years ago still inform the British education system today, as Nazlin Bhimani reveals.

  • Article
  • Article

My mother, and metaphors of a pandemic

| Sandy Di YuSteven Pocock

A pandemic. Two members of one family, living thousands of miles apart. And months of calls and messages that helped them grow closer.

  • Article
  • Article

Building resilience in a racist world

| Louisa Adjoa ParkerOlivia Twist

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.

  • Article
  • Article

How the mental health system fails Black people

| Rianna WalcottCamilla Greenwell

Accessing mental healthcare as a Black woman can be a challenging experience. Rianna Walcott shares her story, alongside those of three other women, to reveal the barriers she faced.

  • Photo story
  • Photo story

‘Yes I am’ – voices of autistic women from minoritised communities

| Rosie Barnes

Rosie Barnes showcases the powerful voices of autistic women from minoritised communities as they talk about the specific and complex challenges they face.

  • Interview
  • Interview

Inside the mind of Ayurvedic Man’s curator, Bárbara Rodriguez Muñoz

| Gwendolyn Smith

The choices a curator makes – what goes in? what stays out? why? – are often as fascinating as the exhibition itself.

  • Article
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Sun salutations and yoga synthesis in India

| Lalita Kaplish

Surya namaskars, or sun salutations, have a long history in South Asia, but their place at the heart of modern yoga is more recent.

  • Article
  • Article

Yoga gets physical

| Lalita Kaplish

Modern yoga owes a debt to the physical culture movement that created a world obsessed with health and fitness.

  • Article
  • Article

The healing power of breathing

| Effie Webb

The healing powers of different breathing methods are said to help with a range of health challenges, from asthma to PTSD. Effie Webb traces their spiritual origins and explores the modern proliferation of breathwork therapies.

  • Article
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WhatsApp aunties and the spread of fake news

| Rianna WalcottMaïa Walcott

The advantages of WhatApp chat groups – especially as a cost-free way of keeping in touch with family around the world – make them fertile ground for the spread of bogus medical advice. Writer Rianna Walcott explores how to encourage ‘aunties’ in the community to question the truth of unattributed health hoaxes.

  • Article
  • Article

Vivekananda’s journey

| Lalita Kaplish

How a young Indian monk’s travels around the world inspired modern yoga.