![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/1b73255d-add2-453e-a365-7159ca05b090_DSC_0148.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
The island of unclaimed bodies
In New York, those who live and die on the extreme edges of society are buried on an isolated island, often forgotten and unmourned. But recent legal changes aim to reduce stigma and restore their dignity.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2Fee7e61c8-e54e-4270-a412-c5c362d9c4ce_05-wellcome+image_heart.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
The problem of the punctured heart
During World War II a young American surgeon working in England perfected shrapnel-removal techniques that saved dozens of lives. Discover how one case sealed his reputation as the founder of cardiac surgery.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/e7ce0a0d-82c3-4b11-a485-2b55c414bd47_EP1225_5781.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
The solidarity of sickness
Visiting an injured friend in hospital prompts writer Sinéad Gleeson to reflect on the instant rapport forged between compatriots in the kingdom of the sick.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/a6fd8db3-0d2c-4aa6-a785-328b4b18c629_Rivans+Wellcome+Stories+Chapter+2.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
The hidden history of homesickness
Gail Tolley delves into the history of homesickness and discovers that its rich past holds a clue to how we view the experience today.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/d6472102-b90a-4d06-861e-2db6f6dbdde2_FINAL+FINAL_A_wee_spot_of_bother_LucyGrainge.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
A wee spot of bother
Euphemisms can both appear to diminish experiences while at the same time making them easier to talk about. Carrie Hynds, who experienced the latter part of Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”, explores the relationship between language and trauma.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F0b0d34ae-194f-49f6-bb51-488c961eb1d3_ep000043_0001.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Female masturbation and the perils of pleasure
Dr Kate Lister exposes the brutal 19th-century ‘cures’ for women who indulged in masturbation.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F577a3dc2-9127-4ff6-9036-53a6b9988e78_emilymayhew_promo_credit-rupert-frere.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Book extract
- Book extract
Sockets and stumps
Historian Emily Mayhew has met soldiers who have survived the seemingly unsurvivable. Here, she explores the part prosthetics play in the process of military rehabilitation.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/c1505038-08ca-4609-a934-454c68b57684_Fungai+Marima+%28RGB%29-Edit.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Tracing the toxic story of tear gas
Investigating tear gas – from factory to Black Lives Matter protest – Imani Jacqueline Brown uncovers a toxic legacy where pollution, violence and racism are intimately entwined.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/MmUxZDBlNTktNzUxOS00YTMxLTgyMDQtZjcyZjcwODhjMmZm_to-06-01-l0062953.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
The prostitute whose pox inspired feminists
Fitzrovia, 1875. A woman recorded only as A.G. enters hospital and is diagnosed with syphilis.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/38a92b42-7ea8-4175-99ab-98de16f3758b_HC_Thalidomide_CH3_final.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Adapting to life as a thalidomide survivor
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.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/7fb28058-994f-4597-8204-7daee0bf356c_EP001218_001.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Our endless quest for eternal youth
From poisonous 16th-century cosmetics to the latest “vampire facelift”, discover the fashions in unsavoury methods for improving our appearance.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/650d1cd0-80dc-4227-a60d-0f16f1cd4c73_EP001686_0006-Edit.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Rethinking the placebo effect
The placebo effect has long been harnessed for both legitimate and fraudulent use, but we’re only just discovering how and why our bodies respond positively to dummy drugs, as Anjuli Sharma reveals.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/f72c7cda-fafe-4c0d-bb71-a7d44a720cd1_EP002389_Aphasia+and+drawing+elephants_0001.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Aphasia and drawing elephants
When Thomas Parkinson investigated the history of “speech science”, he discovered an unexpected link between empire, elephants and aphasia.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/8172f1c5-27ab-400b-a4f1-9f64ff252198_Article+4+Subhadra.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Making sunstroke insanity
Medical historian Dr Kristin Hussey takes a closer look at sunstroke and mental illness, and how, in the late 19th century, they connected at the crossroads of colonial science and the idea of whiteness.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/YzNiYTdiM2YtZTU4NC00NjUzLTgwOWMtOTkxZWRjZmEzNmMw_to-04-01-v0010484.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
The colonist who faced the blue terror
India, 1857. In a British enclave, Katherine Bartrum watches her friend, and then her family, succumb to the deadly cholera.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2Fbdf2da4a-e390-4807-ab5e-9ec6c76b1802_ling-feat2.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Yoga gets physical
Modern yoga owes a debt to the physical culture movement that created a world obsessed with health and fitness.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F9de03158-b99b-4416-b431-ad514b48323e_astonishing_x-men_vol_3_51+crop.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Sex in graphic novels
Sex and sexuality have long been explored in the history of the graphic novel.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/64a115cb-52f8-451d-9e74-dfbb3caf20c6_SHAME05.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Shame and the online free-for-all
Lucia Osborne-Crowley looks at how shame manifests online, where public humiliation is common and second chances all too rare.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F81fd7a99-7ca2-46ad-a9df-8125a74779ba_1918_influenza_epidemic_site.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Article
- Article
Why the 1918 Spanish flu defied both memory and imagination
The Black Death, AIDS and Ebola outbreaks are part of our collective cultural memory, but the Spanish flu outbreak has not been.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/b740013c-d63d-4ba0-b857-a07f34b8bfd5_EP001756_0001.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Book extract
- Book extract
Inside the Cold War mind
Martin Sixsmith explores the competing national psyches of Russia and America, and a world divided between their irreconcilable visions of human nature.
![](https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2F8c03ae9e-ffeb-4df3-9a92-d6d49745d7a8_v0042598_mango_16x9_featured+image.jpg?w=1338&auto=compress%2Cformat&rect=&q=50)
- Book extract
- Book extract
Ayurveda: Knowledge for long life
The story of medicine in India is rich and complex. Aarathi Prasad investigates how it came to be this way.