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Stories

  • 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.

  • Article

Cowpox, Covid-19 and Jenner’s vaccination legacy

The well-known story of vaccination pioneer Edward Jenner has at its heart his drive to make vaccines free of charge and available to all. Now his principles extend to the global campaign for a people’s patent-free vaccine for Covid-19.

  • Article

Remote romance and the common cold

Getting creatively romantic due to a virus sounds all too contemporary, but our archives show what socially distanced seduction looked like seven decades ago.

  • In pictures

Pum Dunbar’s living lessons

Read the ‘legends’ that give insight into Pum Dunbar’s creative process while producing her recent series of collages.

All stories (14)

Images

  • AIDS clinical trial information service advertisement with the letters 'Call 1-800-Trials A' across the page. Colour lithograph.
  • Galanthus nivalis L. Amaryllidaceae Snowdrop. Hardy, bulbous herb. Distribution: Europe. A chemical, galantamine, is sourced principally from the Caucasian snowdrop, Galanthus woronowii but is present in our ‘English’ snowdrop and related genera. It is a competitive, reversible, acetylcholinesterase inhibitor so increases brain acetylcholine, a chemical of great importance in cerebral function. As such it has been recommended for ameliorating the symptoms of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, but not for mild cognitive impairment as in US clinical trials there was an increased mortality. Johnson (Gerard, 1633) calls it the bulbous violet, Viola theophrasti
  • Native American children in a variety of poses suggesting blindness and hiding representing a warning that we isolate ourselves from HIV/AIDS; advertisement about AIDS education and clinical services for native Indian women and children by the Seattle Indian Health Board. Colour lithograph.
  • Discovering new medicines? : Human bodies are good at fighting disease, but sometimes things go wrong and then we need medicines. It takes about 15 years to make a new medicine. This is how it's done / Biomedical Research Education Trust, Understanding Animal Research.
  • A mother sits sewing as her children play: promoting Norplant as a family planning method in Nigeria. Colour lithograph by Family Health Services Project, ca. 1994.
  • Cell in laser beam, flow cytometry, illustration
  • Helianthus annuus Greene Asteraceae. Sunflower, Marigold of Peru, Floure of the Sun. Distribution: Peru and Mexico. It was much recommended by Gerard (1633) who advises that the buds, covered in flour, boiled, and eaten with 'butter, vinegar and pepper, far surpass artichokes in procuring bodily lust’. Sadly, today only the seeds of sunflower are consumed, as the source of sunflower seed oil used in cooking. It contains mono and polyunsaturated fats, linoleic acid and oleic acid, and is low in saturated fats. As such it was thought to lower cholesterol and so the risk of heart disease, but it may increase the risk of breast and prostatic cancer. However a recent report BMJ2013
  • Vitex agnus-castus var. latifolia
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Catalogue

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