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In pictures

In pictures

Telling Scotland about AIDS

28 June 2022 | Colin Moore

Find out how activists and organisations working on AIDS information campaigns in 1980s Scotland used cartoons, kilts, and candid language to convey their message.

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Article

Deadly doses and the hardest of hard drugs

6 December 2018 | Stevyn Colgan

The invention of the modern hypodermic syringe meant we could get high – or accidentally die – faster than before. Find out how this medical breakthrough was adapted for deadly uses.

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Article

The unimprovable white cane

25 November 2021 | Alex LeeIan Treherne

Recent technological additions to the white cane aim to make the world easier for visually impaired people to navigate. Alex Lee explores whether new is really better.

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Article

Why the 1918 Spanish flu defied both memory and imagination

25 October 2018 | Mark Honigsbaum

The Black Death, AIDS and Ebola outbreaks are part of our collective cultural memory, but the Spanish flu outbreak has not been.

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Article

Society, not Covid-19, makes us vulnerable

9 December 2020 | Rick BurgessCarrie Ravenscroft

Rick Burgess coped with the death of his mother in February 2020 by immersing himself in the task of protecting his community from Covid-19 and challenging the government's failure to protect and support elderly and Disabled people during the pandemic.

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Article

Fees, funding and the NHS

28 June 2018 | Cal Flyn

In the 1950s, dramatic political battles over NHS charges brought down a government. But public confidence in the service still grew.

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Article

Giving shape to sound

22 September 2020 | Jamie HaleSamuel DoreKirsten IrvingThomas S G Farnetti

Fascinated by language and how music feels, Deaf rapper Signkid creates tracks that give shape to sound. He discusses inspiration, access and performing for all audiences, D/deaf and hearing alike.

Long read

Long read

Rehab centres and the ‘cure’ for addiction

22 February 2023 | Guy StaggJess Nash

Guy Stagg takes us on a brief history of rehab centres and their approaches to addiction and recovery.

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Article

Thomas Sankara and the stomachs that made themselves heard

1 November 2022 | Perry BlanksonAnna Keville Joyce

Thomas Sankara’s vision to transform farming and health in Burkina Faso turned to dust with his assassination. Perry Blankson highlights the considerable achievements of Sankara’s brief span in power.

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Article

Guerrilla public health

21 November 2017 | Harry Shapiro

From safe-use guides to needle exchange schemes, Harry Shapiro reflects on 40 years of drug harm reduction in the UK.

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Article

Families fighting for justice

20 May 2021 | Ruth BlueHollie Chastain

In 1962 a group of parents whose children had been affected by thalidomide began a decades-long battle in the law courts, the media and Parliament in order to win fair justice for all thalidomide survivors.

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Article

Dyslexia and its misconceptions

9 February 2022 | Madeleine MorleyLucy Grainge

Overcoming common myths about dyslexia only adds to the challenges of growing up with the condition. Madeleine Morley, who was diagnosed with dyslexia aged eight, goes into myth-busting mode and shares her personal experiences.

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Article

The colonist who faced the blue terror

12 October 2018 | Anna Faherty

India, 1857. In a British enclave, Katherine Bartrum watches her friend, and then her family, succumb to the deadly cholera.

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Article

Sex in graphic novels

9 November 2018 | Stephen Lowther

Sex and sexuality have long been explored in the history of the graphic novel.

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Article

Adapting to life as a thalidomide survivor

6 May 2021 | Ruth BlueHollie Chastain

Growing up as a thalidomide survivor meant coping with all the usual challenges of childhood and adolescence, while having to fit into a world designed for the able-bodied.