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  • Article

Epidemic threats and racist legacies

Epidemiology is the systematic, data-driven study of health and disease in populations. But as historian Jacob Steere-Williams suggests, this most scientific of fields emerged in the 19th century imbued with a doctrine of Western imperialism – a legacy that continues to influence how we talk about disease.

  • Article

Coasting to catastrophe

In climate change, everything – and everyone – is connected. The watery process that will gradually cut off the Isle of Thanet from the British mainland has begun, and everyone in the UK needs to pay attention.

  • Article

Bloody capitalism and the cash flow of the menstrual cycle

Once they thrived on taboos and shame. Now period-product manufacturers are finding new ways to flourish in this era of period activism – but products aren’t the end of the story.

  • Article

Conflicted and confused about lithium

Covid-19 left Laura Grace Simpkins out of work and living back with her parents. She now had time to restart her research into her medication, but was she mad to continue?

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Images

  • Adelaide, South Australia: Adelaide Hospital. Photograph, 18--.
  • Adelaide, South Australia: Victoria Square. Albumen print by S.W. Sweet.
  • Adelaide, South Australia: King William Street. Albumen print by S.W. Sweet.
  • The word 'lubricate' quivers as if under water; advertisement for safe sex and water-based lubricants by the A.C.S.A. (AIDS Council of South Australia) and the South Australian Health Commission. Colour lithograph by TK.
  • Lunacy in many lands : being an introduction to the reports on the lunatic asylums of various countries, visited in 1882-5 / by G.A. Tucker, and presented by him to the government of New South Wales, Australia.
  • Lunacy in many lands : being an introduction to the reports on the lunatic asylums of various countries, visited in 1882-5 / by G.A. Tucker, and presented by him to the government of New South Wales, Australia.
  • A man leans against a desk by a window representing a man who is HIV positive with information on information about HIV and HIV testing by the AIDS Council of New South Wales, Victorian AIDS Council and Wellcome Australia Limited. Lithograph.
  • Two smiling women leaning on a hand rail representing women who want safe sex with a list of AIDS-related helplines for women in Australia; advertisement by The Women & AIDS Project of the AIDS Council of New South Wales. Colour lithograph by Loonie Lane and Sandy Edwards.
  • Acacia melanoxylon R.Br. Mimosaceae. Australian Blackwood. Tree. Distribution: Eastern Australia. Tree. Invasive weed in South Africa, Portugal, California. Local uses: analgesic. Causes allergic contact dermatitis due to 2,6,dimethoxybenzoquinone. Pinnate leaves of young plant drop off and phylloclades are formed instead. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Plectranthus argentatus S.T.Blake Lamiaceae Silver spurflower. Herbaceous perennial. Distribution: Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. Little is known of its chemical constituents. It does contain many novel diterpenoids in its leaf glands (Alder, A.C. et al, Helvetica Chimica Acta, 2004, 67(6): 1523 – 1530).This genus has had some species from the genus Coleus incorporated into it, and these form a separate clade on phylogenetic analysis. The species in the ‘Coleus’ clade have a higher incidence of medicinal usage, being used to treat digestive, skin, infective and respiratory problems. They contain monoterpenoids, sesquiterpenoids, and diterpenoids. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
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