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Stories

  • Article

A history of gestation outside the body

It’s been over 400 years since a Swiss alchemist theorised that foetuses could develop outside the womb. Claire Horn examines incubator technology past and present, and explores the possibilities recent prototypes might bring.

  • Article

The healing power of the physic garden

Having experienced the healing power of plants and gardens, Iona Glen goes in search of present-day “physic gardens” and their origins in history.

  • 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.

  • Article

Maria McKinney on ‘Sire’

All my grandparents were farmers; I grew up in the countryside surrounded by farms and helped neighbours herd sheep and cattle into the field. My body of work called ‘Sire’ looks at the genomics of modern cattle breeding.

All stories (21)

Images

  • Artificial hands: designs. Pen and ink drawing.
  • An itinerant salesman with artificial arms selling the bootlaces that hang from the hooks of his hands. Etching by J.T. Smith, 1816.
  • Carving out an artificial hand
  • Artificial left arm and hand
  • Artificial left arm and hand
  • Artificial left arm and hand
  • Artificial left arm, metal, with hand and canvas shoulder strap. Made by the Mckay Artificial Limb Company.
  • Artificial left arm, metal, with hand and canvas shoulder strap. Made by the Mckay Artificial Limb Company.
  • Description of an artificial hand / By Sir George Cayley.
  • Description of an artificial hand / By Sir George Cayley.
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Catalogue

All works (157)