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Interpreting the Ayurvedic Man

A British Sign Language video is the latest interpretation of an unique 18th-century Nepali painting about Ayurvedic medicine.

Eels and feels

For Georgian Londoners, the allure of electric animals was both intellectual and sensual.

The enigma of the medieval folding almanac

With its combination of rich, portable data and high-end style, this folding almanac could have been the medieval equivalent of the latest iPhone.

Thunderbolts and lightning

Fire in the sky has always exerted a hold on our imagination, even as early scientists unlocked the secrets of atmospheric electricity.

Titans in the landscape

Blood

Discover the history, mythology and taboos around blood and menopause, and hear from some contemporary voices about their experiences of periods and the onset of menopause.

The eye of darshan

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.

Mixed heritage lesbian couples and fertility treatment

For a lesbian couple who want to share their different cultural heritages with their child, fertility treatment can get very complicated.

Nymphomania and hypersexuality in women and men

The history of nymphomania is closely bound with society's views on women and their sexuality.

History of condoms from animal to rubber

Come on a journey from the first recorded condoms in the 16th century to the modern female condoms in the 1990s – and everything in between.

What is air, and how do we know?

Watching bubbles in fermenting beer led 18th-century scientist Joseph Priestley to invent sparkling water – and to discover that different gases make up the air we breathe.

The soul in the stomach

A 17th-century physician’s controversial theory about the link between the emotions and the stomach reminds us that we shouldn’t ignore our ‘gut feelings’.

Medics and the bomb

Would a nuclear attack on the UK overwhelm the NHS? At the height of the Cold War, despite government optimism, medics predicted doom.

Theriac: An ancient brand?

The name theriac survived for around for two millennia as a pharmaceutical term. But a ‘brand’ name is not always a guarantee of quality.

Why pandemic denial is nothing new

Could today’s Covid-deniers be taking lessons from history? After all, it’s nearly 200 years since frustrations at a cholera-induced lockdown erupted in Sunderland.

The freedom to provoke

Jamie Hale talks to performer and director Emma Selwyn about the joy of creating work that celebrates, rather than suppresses, autistic behaviours.

The sickness in the wellness industry

In recovery from anorexia, Gwen Smith began to realise how the wellness industry needs its followers to feel bad about themselves in order to make money out them.

Reassuring ghosts and haunted houses

Explore the perversely comforting appeal of a ghost in the house.

Getting around the rules of sex education

What should we and shouldn’t we teach our teens about sex, inside and outside of the classroom?

The poor child’s nurse

Charming family scenes in Victorian ads for children’s medicines were at odds with some of the dangerous ingredients they contained.

Lustmord and the three perspectives of murder

Artist Jenny Holzer's work shines a light on the three perspectives of sexual murder: the victim, the perpetrator and the observer.

How tuberculosis became a test case for eugenic theory

A 19th-century collaboration that failed to prove how facial features could indicate the diseases people were most likely to suffer from became a significant stepping stone in the new ‘science’ of eugenics.

The give and take of caring

Kate Mosse argues that how we define ‘care’ matters, and explores the reciprocity of caring and being cared for.

On contagion

Reading descriptions of the way humans become infested by parasitic flatworms, Daisy Lafarge experienced painful physical symptoms. Perhaps the very creature she was studying had invaded her body.

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.