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.)

Coloured etching of woman on a cross
  • In pictures

The fast and the spurious

Extreme fasting has captured the public imagination for centuries. What pushes people to claim to go without food for improbable lengths of time?

Part of Inside Our Collections

Frame of Loving comic by Rob Bidder. Two figures embrace with love hearts as eyes.
  • Comic

Loving

Learning how to be loved can be complicated.

Part of Body Squabbles

Illustration using collage techniques. Image shows a scene made up of mainly yellow and green hues. To the bottom centre is am examination table behind which stand 7 male doctors in white coats. Above them hovers a horizontal female figure, her arms crossed over her upper body. Hanging from beneath her are 5 paper labels with the text, 'Specimen' and 'Disease...' written on 2 of them. To the left of the image is an engraving of a young man looking at the floating figure through a telescope. To the right are illustrations of a plant and part of the palm leaves from a tree as well as an engraving of an academic male figure who looks like he's talking about the floating figure. Books and stars float around the floating figure.
  • Serial
Part2

The epilepsy diagnosis

Epilepsy exists between the mind and body, something that Aparna Nair experienced for herself when she was diagnosed as a teenager.

Part of Epilepsy and me

Illustration in the style of Manga graphic novels, showing a decapitated woman's head on the floor. Her body is lying behind her on a bed. Behind the bed stands a man with a horrified expression on his face. A long green ribbon trails from his hand, over the bed to the neck of the woman's head.
  • Article

On body horror and growing up strange

A young child’s unusual feelings, reactions and assertions are routinely dismissed by adults. Find out how manga horror stories became a source of strength, and helped them trust their adult body.

Watercolour showing a man holding a tub of pills labelled "A perfect cure for love". On the floor is the lid for the tub labelled "Hymen's sugar coated pills" and underneath is a poem in pencil.
  • In pictures

A short history of lovesickness

Are you ill or are you simply in love? It can be hard to tell. No wonder lovesickness was for centuries regarded as a bona fide disease.

Part of Inside Our Collections

How to play

Game designer Holly Gramazio takes a journey though the history and culture of games, and invites you to turn your mind to play wherever you are.

Books

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

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Slice from Nature Rob Bidder showing a green figure blending into the background as vines sprout from them.
  • Comic

Nature

What gets you out into nature? Nature’s got it all, whether you’re looking for an adrenaline rush or simply to relax on a patch of grass and watch the clouds go by.

Part of Body Squabbles

Illustration using collage techniques. Image shows a scene made up of mainly green and yellow hues. To the left is the back of an old fashioned TV set out of which is emerging streaks of electron, or neural pathway patterns. Behind the TV set are two figures. A black dog is leaping towards the TV set. In the centre of the image is a human head with the repeating dots from the face of a dice covering their eyes and surrounding area. To the right are illustrations of a plant and part of the palm leaves from a tree.
  • Serial
Part1

The first seizure

Historian Aparna Nair had her first seizure when she was 11. Here she recalls that first time, and how other people’s reactions are sometimes the most disturbing part about having a seizure.

Part of Epilepsy and me

Photograph of a small island. The lower half of the image is water, the upper half and overcast sky. Across the centre of the image is the island, covered in green trees and several 2 and 3 storey buildings and a tall chimney in the centre.
  • Article

The island of unclaimed bodies

In New York, those who live and die on the extreme edges of society are buried on an isolated island, often forgotten and unmourned. But recent legal changes aim to reduce stigma and restore their dignity.

Photograph of an illustration showing the head and shoulders of a woman in a bonnet with red acne marks on her face.
  • In pictures

Face to face with acne

Vivid depictions of 19th-century acne patients in dermatologists’ “skin atlases” leave a contemporary acne sufferer wondering if their experiences were similar to hers.

Patient comic by Rob Bidder. A small blue figure is being licked by a larger figure in the palm of their hand.
  • Comic

Patient

Moments of our personhoods showing on the conveyor-belt of care.

Part of Body Squabbles

Photograph of a young person in a motorised wheelchair outside, in front of a white washed brick wall. They are lit by a low sun which is casting long shadows against the wall.
  • Article

How hospital care fails disabled bodies

Hospitals aim to make sick people well. But if the sick person is also disabled, the unbending nature of monolithic hospital systems can easily worsen the situation. Here Jamie Hale writes from painful personal experience.

Part of Being Patient