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Stories

  • Article

The origins and meanings of pharmacy symbols

What have snakes, unicorns and crocodiles got to do with pharmacies? The history of these modern signs goes back to the Greek gods.

  • Article

A symbol of a lost homeland

The story of one protective amulet from Palestine reveals a complex tale. Encompassing the personal history of an influential doctor and collector, it provides a window onto dispossession and exile, and the painful repercussions that are still felt today.

  • Article

Self-obsessing in the age of selfies

The tiny, joyful spark of a social media ‘like’ can lead to a damaging obsession. Find out how far people will go when their phone addiction gets the upper hand.

  • Article

Inhaling happiness and gasping for a high

The rapid, short-lived high we get from whippets, reefers and vapes can be accompanied by long-term health consequences. The search is on for safer ways to get stoned.

All stories (121)

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  • Arithmologia sive de abditis numerorum mysterijs qua origo, antiquitas et fabrica numerorum exponitur; abditae eorundem proprietates demonstrantur; fontes superstitionum in amuletorum fabrica aperiuntur; denique post cabalistarum, Arabum, gnosticorum, aliorumque magicas impietates detectas, vera et licita numerorum mystica significatio ostenditur / [Athanasius Kircher].
  • A woman seated on a obstetrical chair giving birth aided by a midwife who works beneath her skirts. Woodcut.
  • [Wellcome MS Persian 474].
  • [Wellcome MS Persian 474].
  • One folded sheet containing the silhouette torso of Michelangelo's David and a list of excuses for not practising safe sex; advertisement by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Colour lithograph by Larry Stinson and Les Poppas.
  • Five men hold a flag which they use to dig; advertisement for gay men to use precautions by Gay Men Fighting Aids. Colour lithograph.
  • The words 'SIDA' being rubbed out with a rubber bearing the EU symbol representing an advertisement for the 3rd European conference on the care and treatment of AIDS in Paris on 12 and 13th March 1992; advertisement by Mairie de Paris. Colour lithograph.
  • A small pinned AIDS red ribbon against a white background representing an advertisement for World AIDS Day 1 December. Colour lithograph by Kathrin Bartelheim.
  • A head containing over thirty images symbolising the phrenological faculties. Wood engraving, c. 1845, after O.S. Fowler (?).
  • A head containing over thirty images symbolising the phrenological faculties. Wood engraving, c. 1845, after O.S. Fowler (?).
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