Stories

Our words and pictures explore the connections between science, medicine, life and art. Dive into a story no matter where in the world you are. (Want to write for us? Here's how.)

Ruby Elliot Rubyetc
  • Comic

Home

Make yourself comfortable in your own body.

Artwork created by painting over the surface of a black and white photographic print with colourful paint. The artwork shows the original heads of two individuals from the photograph, on the left an adult woman and on the right a young baby. The baby is being held in the adult's arms. Apart from the heads the rest of the image is a painted yellow background covered in small green, orange and blue dots. The individual's cloths are painted differently, the adult's has a green background with wavy orange horizontal lines and pink spots. The baby's is green with pink cell like patterns with red centres.
  • Serial
Part1

Belonging and why we long for it

Tanya Perdikou’s upbringing emphasised conventional respectability, but other influential family members embraced the bohemian life. Caught between two sets of values, she questions where, if anywhere, she fits in.

Part of How to belong

An artwork that combines life drawings of figures in pencil, detailed ink pen elements and painted colour sections against a black background. The central figure is a detailed pencil life drawing of a naked woman turned slightly away, her arms are wrapped around herself as if in an embrace. She is surrounded by detailed black ink drawings of foliage and encapsulated within a pale pink circle. In each corner of the artwork there are detailed pencil life drawings of pairs of hands, differing in ages and ethnicity. The hands are holding and touching each other and appear against separate yellow circles. Each group of hands is connected by detailed white lines against the black background.
  • Article

Losing touch

In these pandemic times, when touch has become taboo, Agnese Reginaldo explores the importance of physical contact to our wellbeing.

Ruby Elliot Rubyetc
  • Comic

Favourite things

What's your favourite "getting me through this" thing right now?

Part of Rubyetc

Digital collage of archival material. In the centre, an etching of the head and shoulders of a man as he looks towards the viewer. The frame around the head reads “Giovanbattista Van Helmont”. The lozenge shaped portrait is sitting on an illustration of the gut and intestines.
  • Article

The soul in the stomach

A 17th-century physician’s controversial theory about the link between the emotions and the stomach reminds us that we shouldn’t ignore our ‘gut feelings’.

The heart of homesickness

Gail Tolley uncovers the complexities of homesickness and explores why this condition is affecting so many people today more seriously than we might expect.

Books

Get stuck into one of our books, and explore the complexities of the human condition.

You may have missed

Photograph of a foggy park scene with a horizon line cutting horizontally through the landscape. Above the horizon line is a blue hued cloud ladened sky, grainy and misty. Below the horizon line is the dark green of the parkland grass. rising up from the horizon in silhouette are the shapes of trees, a park bench and a solitary figure of a person.
  • Article

Another way to listen

Background noise is something we often try to ignore. Adjoa Wiredu explores what happens if we intentionally choose to tune in.

Photograph of a woodcut image, showing a man lying in bed surrounded by a priest and two women. The print is resting on a grey textured concrete background, raised slightly off the surface.
  • In pictures

How to live well, the medieval way

These days we might not think that celibacy could kill you, but otherwise, medieval tips to maintain wellness still often ring true.

Part of Inside Our Collections

Ruby Elliot comic (detail)
  • Comic

Food struggles

The struggle is not only real but timeless.

Photograph of a photographic colour print resting on a grey, concrete textured surface, from directly above. The print is slightly raise off the surface, casting a small shadow. The print shows portraits of 10 people, head and shoulders, arranged in a grid of 2 rows and 5 columns. All the people pictured are looking straight to camera.
  • Article

Care, creativity and a connected world

Find out about the challenges Wellcome Collection has faced during the last very demanding year.

Photograph of an old retractable cine film projector screen and stand, in the corner of a white walled room. To the right of the screen can be seen the reveals of a window with marble-like window sill and moulded wooden panels. On the screen is projected an archive black and white animated film, 'Private SNAFU vs. Malaria Mike', showing a 'Wanted' poster nailed to a tree. There is a head and shoulders mug shot of Malaria Mike with the serial number 13130013 below. Text on the poster reads 'WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE MALARIA MIKE ALIAS AMOS QUITO.'
  • In pictures

How an animation educated the army

In a 1940s cartoon intended to persuade US troops to take malaria medication, the makers pitted a clodhopping soldier against a wily mosquito. If only Private SNAFU had followed the government’s advice.

Part of Inside Our Collections

Water web comic (detail)
  • Comic

Water

What could be swimming around in your body?

Part of Rubyetc

More articles