MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'history of medicine'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:27:13 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5096286&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F08%2F02%2Fthe-medical-history-background-for-the-oslo-terrorist-action%2F One of the inspirational sources of Oslo terrorist Anders Behring Breivik’s peculiar manifesto ’2083: A European Declaration of Independence’ is the anonymous blogger Fjordman, who has been a leading intellectual in the international anti-Jihad movement for almost a decade. In a recent circular mail, Oslo historian of science Vidar Enebakk draws the attention of his Scandinavian colleagues to the fact that Fjordman has not only written about history, religion and politics in general, but also quite a lot about the history of science and medicine to ‘prove’ that modern science and medicine could only have emerged under the umbrella of European Christendom, and definitely not in Islamic cultures. I’ve now read a few of his many articles (originally pub... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5096286 Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:00:56 +0100 5096286 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5008269&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F07%2F05%2Fthe-role-of-medical-museums-in-contemporary-medical-education%2F We have just submitted an application for a major new gallery based on our anatomical and pathological specimen collections — and the in-house discussions are already becoming vigorous. How to find conceptually interesting ways to display cancer tumours, conjoined twins, and twisted torsos? What’s the balance between spectacular engagement and ethical concerns? How to make the historical collections of the macroanatomical past work together with the microanatomical and molecular collections of present biobanks? During the next couple of years we will embark on a more detailed planning process — we will engage medical experts, medical historians/sociologists, museum colleagues and the general public in a discussion about the best ways to build such a gallery and ho... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5008269 Tue, 05 Jul 2011 08:00:46 +0100 5008269 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4997587&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F07%2F03%2Fwhat-shall-the-new-medical-galleries-in-londons-science-museum-look-like%2F I was in London last week to attend a workshop organised by Robert Bud and the medical curatorial staff at London’s Science Museum. They had invited some 20 people from a variety of academic backgrounds to discuss the future redevelopment of their medical galleries. The day before the workshop we prepared ourselves by a guided tour to the present medical galleries: Science and Art of Medicine from 1981, which the museum describes as “an object rich treasure trove that relates the history of Western Medicine according to a broadly chronological (‘Plato to Nato’), encyclopaedic approach”; a later addition to ‘Science and Art of Medicine’ called ‘Living Medical Traditions’, which examines four contemporary non-western medical traditions.... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4997587 Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:00:33 +0100 4997587 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4992743&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F07%2F01%2Fhouse-wrapped-in-dolls-hair-artist-meta-comment-on-entire-museum%2F Just saw this on Danny’s blog. Artist meta-comment on entire museum:  The former London home of Sigmund and Anna Freud, now the Freud Museum, is enveloped in a cats cradle of rope made of dolls’ hair. Standing as it does on a prosperous suburban street of imposing redbrick villas, the bound house looks like a scene from a dream itself, a dream of home denied. Such dreams are typically untangled on a therapeutic descendant of the very couch that sits inside the museum; the fairytale Rapunzel tress-ropes also suggest the kind of psychological decoding of myth and culture that Freud indulged in. It’s interesting how an entire exhibition can transform and be experienced in a whole new way through one persons art-work derived from subjective associations. She hasn’t changed... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4992743 Fri, 01 Jul 2011 08:38:09 +0100 4992743 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4960242&cid=t_92659_131_f&fid=34989&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.b5media.com%2F%7Er%2Fb5media%2FGeneticsHealth%2F%7E3%2FyRR9QNlUqb8%2F Last week, we wrote about research claiming antidepressants could make you more depressed. Italian professor of clinical psychology Giovannia Fava found antidepressants used over long periods of time can actually increase a patient’s chances of relapse more than if they were to take a placebo. Mixed messages on antidepressants and other psychopharmaceuticals seem to be increasingly prevalent. More people than ever are prescribed them—and have a vested interest in selling them. For a fascinating primer on how the psychiatric drug culture we know today came to be, check out this New York Review of Books piece by Marcia Angell. In it, Angell reviews three new books on the psychiatric industry (The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Mag... Genetics and Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4960242 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 16:43:57 +0100 4960242 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4952930&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F06%2F18%2Fimpatient-discovery-vs-mature-understanding-revisiting-ragnar-granits-view-of-the-goal-of-scientific-work%2F Prompted by a recent guest blog post on the Scientific American site, I’ve just revisited an almost 40 year old essay titled “Discovery and understanding” by the Finland-Swedish neurophysiologist and Nobel Prize Winner Ragnar Granit. Growing out of a talk (see video here) that Granit gave at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in 1972, the essay was published in the Annual Review of Physiology later the same year. I remember dimly having read it when I was a PhD student a few years after it was published, but apparently I didn’t really appreciate it then — and didn’t understand the deeper significance of the message either. But now I think I’ve got it. And it’s quite interesting for discussions about the culture of sc... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4952930 Sat, 18 Jun 2011 20:22:49 +0100 4952930 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4883659&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F05%2F30%2Fmadness-and-museums-collecting-and-exhibiting-the-history-of-psychiatry%2F “While much has been written on the history of psychiatry, remarkably little has been written about psychiatric collections or curating”, says the back-cover of Exhibiting Madness in Museums: Remembering Psychiatry Through Collection and Display, edited by Catharine Coleborne and Dolly MacKinnon. A first sketch to a comparative history of collections of psychiatric objects, the volume, which will be published by Routledge in August, investigates collectors, collections, displays, and the reactions to exhibitions of the history of insanity. Unfortunately, it’s limited to museums in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK, but that’s a good start — we’re eagerly waiting for a sequel treating the many rich psychiatric museum collections in continen... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4883659 Mon, 30 May 2011 08:00:07 +0100 4883659 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734159&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F04%2F21%2Fhow-to-use-museum-collections-in-teaching-history%2F Of course you can, but few history teachers actually take the opportunity. Museum collections remain a remarkably underutilised resource in academic history teaching. And the history of science, technology and medicine is no exception. Here at Medical Museion we have occasionally brought material objects into our medical history courses and also into the course we’re giving on medical science and technology studies for medical engineering students. We have plans to do much more, especially when it comes to integrating traditional academic and curatorial perspectives on material objects, and we are very eager to learn about other university museums with more teaching experience than we have. Therefore, the initiative taken by The Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734159 Thu, 21 Apr 2011 12:02:29 +0100 4734159 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4734101&cid=t_92659_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Famazing-leaps-in-medical-knowledge-heart-physiology-then-and-now%2F2011.04.20 These last several weeks I have been absolutely overwhelmed with science, meetings, writing, and reviews. I might complain, but I should also be flattered that I am as busy as I am. Mama is in demand, little muffin. Still, things are beginning to slow down to a tolerable level on my end, which means I will be back to blogging. Today I was working on some writing when I had cause to review some historical texts. It gives me pause to stop and consider things that we take for granted. For example, think about how blood flows through the heart and lungs… Figure 1: Blood flows from right to left, across the lungs. I can’t tell you how many times a day I look at a heart and  take for granted that blood should flow from the venous circulation, into the right side of the heart, acros... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4734101 Wed, 20 Apr 2011 19:00:08 +0100 4734101 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4615160&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F03%2F19%2F7384%2F Representing one the peripherally participating institutions in the Nordic Network for Medical History, I’m pleased to broadcast the good news about the upcoming summer course on ‘Historicisation’ to be held in Bergen, 24–26 August, 2011. The aim of the course is to teach postgraduate students how medical historical research can be ‘historicised’. As the organisers write, “just how historians, social scientists and others proceed in order to do this varies”: For instance, the ‘proper’ context in which an object of study can be placed may look rather different for historians and medical scientists – as may indeed what constitutes the object of study itself. Historicisation may imply a denaturalisation of certain objects of study, such as th... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4615160 Sat, 19 Mar 2011 20:00:02 +0100 4615160 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4600566&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F03%2F16%2Fblog-on-the-history-of-neurology-and-the-neurosciences%2F Cannot understand why I haven’t come across The Neuro Times blog — a historical blog dedicated to neurology and the neurosciences — before. Full of good stuff and a good example to follow. Tweet (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4600566 Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:01:15 +0100 4600566 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4560334&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F03%2F08%2Fthe-museographer-and-the-object%2F In the process of selecting objects for a new exhibition, I (re)discovered this room: It is located beneath the roof of the museum, and contains, as the picture shows, literally hundreds of small glass vials with various chemical labels. Most are empty, but a few still has the original contents. Aside from being a treasure chest for our exhibition, the room also reminded me of the degree to which being in a house filled with things makes me think differently about the history of medicine. This might not exactly be a groundbreaking insight, but is bears repeating often. The material environment we occupy is foundational for our cognitive states. This sentiment is expressed in the following quote from Claude Lévi-Strauss, which, although it is aimed at ethnographical collectors, seem to m... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4560334 Tue, 08 Mar 2011 14:00:47 +0100 4560334 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4554639&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F03%2F07%2Fcompanies-preparing-skeletons-for-schools-in-the-early-post-war-period%2F My curiosity was just raised by a mail inquiry by Stuart Tallack, who’s asking members of the UK Medical Collections Group for help to clarify a memory from the late 1950s: I visited a company that prepared and articulated skeletons. A room at the back of the premises contained two tanks, one of caustic solution and the other of plain water. Both had gas flames beneath and were used to clean the skeletons of earth and tissue. I do not remember the room where they were articulated with springs and wires but I do recall the office and its cabinet of older and more interesting specimens. I seem to remember shaking the hand of a seven foot Russian, long dead, but still impressive. The company must have been near University College Hospital as I went via Goodge Street station and crosse... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4554639 Mon, 07 Mar 2011 10:39:24 +0100 4554639 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4501624&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F02%2F20%2F7064%2F In the 12 February issue of The Lancet, Jacqueline Finch from University of Manchester’s Centre for Biomedical Egyptology (yes, such a centre really exists!), writes a charming report of her investigation of Egyptian prosthetic devices. Jacqueline Finch, “The ancient origins of prosthetic medicine”, Lancet, 377: 548 – 549 (2011). See also Medgadget’s comment here. Tweet (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4501624 Sun, 20 Feb 2011 10:00:15 +0100 4501624 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4436783&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F02%2F04%2Fvision-and-touch-a-material-history-of-blindness%2F Our own Jan Eric Olsén has received 3.2 mill DKK (about 400.000 euro) from the Velux Foundation for a research project on the history of blindness, titled “Vision and touch: a material history of the world of blindness”. Drawing on archival sources from the Danish Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, as well as the big ophthalmological and blind-historical collections in Medical Museion, the project will explore the medical and cultural tension between vision and blindness: The material objects used by the blind and by emphasising the importance of the sense of touch, the project will provide an alternative viewpoint to earlier historical accounts of blindness and its complex relation to vision. By shifting focus from the iconography of blindness to the material ob... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4436783 Fri, 04 Feb 2011 15:13:03 +0100 4436783 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4361048&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2011%2F01%2F18%2Fmalaria-museum-coming-up%2F We got this cuddly edition of the malaria parasite from Marco Herbst who was here visiting the museum last week, to get inspiration for his upcoming Malaria Museum in Berlin. Marco’s approach to making a museum was refreshingly nontraditional. Far from being webbed up in museological concepts and theories, he builds on a growing fascination with his subject along with the human instinct to collect interesting things. The former owner of a night club in Dublin and a bar in Berlin, Marco has some of the passion and personality of the renaissance collector with his cabinet of curiosities. I’m looking forward to popping by his museum for my daily gin and tonic – a drink originally invented to prevent malaria, as the tonic water contains the alkaloid quinine. But of course ba... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4361048 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 09:29:51 +0100 4361048 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4275349&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F12%2F20%2Fthe-intensive-care-unit-on-display%2F One of my favourite fellow bloggers, medical photographer Øystein Horgmo, has just written about how he was recently invited to document a family taking farewell of a young father in an intensive care unit. It’s a moving story. But what actually caught my interest was this painting (by medical doctor Joseph Dwaihy and artist Sara Dykstra), which Øystein uses the illustrate the story. Based on a photograph from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Centre’s first intensive care unit, circa 1955 (read more here), the painting is reminiscient of Norman Rockwell-realism. Like Rockwell, Dwaihy and Dykstra portray people in mundane situations. It’s people who play the primary role. The instruments are background props. Compare Dwaihy and Dykstra’s painting... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4275349 Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:04:10 +0100 4275349 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4251143&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F12%2F11%2Fwhy-do-we-visit-anatomical-museums-for-curiosity-or-for-learning-or-maybe-some-other-reason%2F Plakat für ein anatomisches Museum, Hamburg, 1913 (from Morbid Anatomy) Next Friday, 17 December, Elena Corradini at the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia organises a seminar on “Visiting an Anatomical Museum: curiosity or training?”: Anatomical University Museums are the keepers of collections which often are very old and different for their consistence and typology. These museums have a fundamental role for the preservation and valorization of cultural historical‐scientific heritage, therefore must become a place of interdisciplinary synthesis. They represent the progress of studies in the past and for the future, and play their fundamental role for the research and for the promotion of educational activities. This role will allow them to be a service for University students ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4251143 Sat, 11 Dec 2010 12:34:10 +0100 4251143 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4245339&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F12%2F09%2Fwe-have-cake-and-talk-about-diabetes%2F I had coffee and cake with our new PhD Adrian Bertoli the other day. Adrian is going to work with the relationship between type-2-diabetes and patient identity throughout the last 50 years, with Thomas as supervisor. Adrian’s project is financed by the cross-disciplinary Center for Healthy Ageing at Copenhagen University. Knowledge about an illness is traditionally communicated directly from the doctor (the source) to the patient (the receiver). Adrian told me that he will look into how contemporary patient groups and social media on the internet make this kind of knowledge more accessible. Knowledge is, seen from this angle, no longer something you receive from a single authoritative source but something that grows and gets its authority from its multiple authors. Knowledge is not som... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4245339 Thu, 09 Dec 2010 12:30:04 +0100 4245339 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4241754&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F12%2F08%2F6596%2F The NIH Office of History has just announced a new batch of Stetten Fellowship for postdoctoral historical research on the biomedical sciences and technology since 1945. The stipends are ~$45,000 per year, include health insurance and office accommodation, computer and phone, and can be renewable to a maximum of 24 months. Application deadline is 31 December 2010. Full announcement here. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4241754 Wed, 08 Dec 2010 09:00:20 +0100 4241754 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4214170&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F11%2F30%2Fthe-history-of-microplate-technology%2F One of my favourite objects for acquisition and display from the world of biomedical and clinical laboratories is the microplate (microtiter plate, microwell plate). A microplate is simply a series of small test tubes (’wells’) arranged in a regular matrix pattern on a plastic plate, usually made from transparent polystyrene. The little plate makes it possible to handle many samples in parallell—the most common size is 96 wells, but there are plates with several thousand wells—and the results can be read in an automated plate reader. In addition, the small size of the wells reduces sample volumes (from milliliter scale to nanoliter scale), which in turn saves money spent on reagents, like enzymes, which can be forbiddingly expensive. So it’s simple, ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4214170 Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:00:41 +0100 4214170 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4207324&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F11%2F29%2Fintroduction-to-the-chemistry-of-life-exhibition%2F We’ve just opened our new exhibition, ‘The Chemistry of Life’, in our satellite exhibition area in the main building of the Faculty of Health Sciences (the Panum Building). For the record, here’s the talk I gave at the opening (for images from the opening, see here): The occasion for Medical Museion’s new exhibition, ’The Chemistry of Life’, is the new Center for Basic Metabolic Research here at the Faculty of Health Sciences. But the Center is only the occasion. What you will see in a few minutes is not an exhibition about any of the aspects of metabolism—diabetes, or obesity, or insulin resistance, or the metabolic syndrome—which the Center will be focus on in the years to come. Instead, we have chosen to take a look at the long research tradit... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4207324 Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:00:47 +0100 4207324 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4162949&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F11%2F13%2Fbuilding-new-museums%2F When a new museum is established, it is formed both by ideas of what the role of the medical history museum in society is, and by the context out of which that specific museum comes. The challenge of building new museums was approached from three very different angles at the Copenhagen conference in September. Kerstin Hulter Åsberg shared her vision of exhibiting the contemporary part of the history of medical sciences in the research centers where it happened and is happening. As it is the researchers and students who are at the same time the audience for the historical exhibitions and the makers of the future of medical science, they should be involved in the making of the museum from the very beginning. Read Kerstin’s full abstract here. Wendy Atkinson expressed that for her the miss... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4162949 Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:00:38 +0100 4162949 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4105741&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F10%2F25%2Ftelling-stories-about-medical-instruments%2F “How do we display artifacts which are neither sexy nor beautiful?” asked Yves Thomas in his presentation at last month’s conference in Copenhagen. His own answer to the question was to bring a human dimension to these objects by adding virtual elements such as interviews with the researchers or video clips of the object in use. Read Yves’ full abstract here. Nurin Veis addressed much the same issue in her talk, focusing on changing our idea about what is aesthetically pleasing instead of trying to sex-up the object. Considering the physical nature of the visitor’s presence in the museum space, we should use that space in a theatrical way to give a full experience of the objects in a historical and scientific context. By asking the visitors to use their bodies in ways they don�... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4105741 Mon, 25 Oct 2010 09:09:37 +0100 4105741 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4025647&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F10%2F02%2F5701%2F Last autumn I wrote about Donald Blaufox’s online collection of historical medical artefacts (MoHMA): Nicely and competently curated and beautifully represented in images, the MoHMA website is yet another example of how important private collectors have been, and still are, for the preservation and communication of the material medical heritage. Dr. Blaufox has now reviewed the site, record by record, improved the texts and replaced and added a lot of images. A labour of love. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4025647 Sat, 02 Oct 2010 08:00:30 +0100 4025647 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3965476&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F09%2F14%2Fusing-our-collections-to-put-current-trends-in-microscopy-in-perspective%2F One of our basic aims here at Medical Museion is to put current trends in biomedicine in a longer historical perspective. Last Friday, we got yet another opportunity for doing this, when the new Core Facility for Integrated Microscopy at the Faculty of Health Sciences opened together with an international research symposium on the state-of-the-art of microscopy. In the hallway outside the symposium room, we displayed a selection of six of our most beautiful old microscopes that represent the development from early simple single lenses to end of the 19th century compound microscopes. The aim was to make the symposium participants better appreciate the beauty of early microscopes and the craftsmanship that has gone into constructing them. During the lunch break, I had a chat with Peter Even... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3965476 Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:00:47 +0100 3965476 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3942826&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F09%2F07%2Fcan-you-love-plastics%2F Is a mass produced plastic chair just as good as an old, handmade wooden one? Yesterday Susan Lambert, Head of the Museum of Design in Plastics in Bournemouth, and professor of art history Marcia Pointon visited us to look through our collection of artifacts made of plastic. They are planning a new research project focusing on our relationship with plastics in a hospital context, and would like to have Medical Museion as one of their research partners.               Ion showed us plastic dentures from the 1860s, a very realistic plastic arm with painted finger nails, and colourful plastic leg pads for children. Even though museums in general look down on plastics as an inauthentic material, we actually found a lot of objects in the collections, which partly or totally consist... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3942826 Tue, 07 Sep 2010 14:11:14 +0100 3942826 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3920886&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F09%2F01%2Fblogging-about-history-of-science-and-medicine%2F If you write or read blogs that include history of science and medicine, you may be interested in filling in this short online survey posted by Jaipreet Virdi, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto — it only takes a minute or two. Jaipreet explains the background for the survey here. (Thanks, Rebekah, for the tip. Rebekah also recommends this link to a good list of blogs and twitter accounts with history of science content). (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3920886 Wed, 01 Sep 2010 07:05:27 +0100 3920886 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3907634&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F08%2F27%2Fneuroscience-these-days%2F My earlier mentioned participation in the ‘Good life better‘ workshop in October will hopefully help me develop a good paper for the conference “Neurosociety… What is it with brains these days?” to be held at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, in December. They have just accepted my abstract (see earlier post), and I’m looking very much forward to participating. As the conference website states: The last twenty years have seen unprecedented advances in the neurosciences, in fields such as psychopharmacology, neurology and behavioural genetics. A growing number of ethicists, social scientists, legal scholars and philosophers have begun to analyze the social, legal and ethical implications of these advances, from the use of fMRI imaging in le... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3907634 Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:00:09 +0100 3907634 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3902935&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F08%2F25%2Fhospital-for-drowned-books%2F Monday morning when the conservator arrived at the Medical Museion, and went down to the basement to continue her work on some damaged bones from the collection, she found herself standing in water up to her ankles. Like in many other parts of Zealand the heavy rains on Saturday had unexpected and unpleasant consequences for the Medical Museion. By far the largest part of the medical machines, historic books on health and hospital curios of the Medical Museion collection is kept in store rooms and basements around the buildings, out of the public eye. There simply isn’t enough room on the exhibitions.            The flood alert sounded around the Medical Museion. Hundred year old black and white photographs looked like autumn leaves, as they lay spread out on tables to dry. Boo... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3902935 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 11:03:48 +0100 3902935 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3899436&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F08%2F25%2Fgood-life-better%2F Discussions about human cognitive enhancement are in different ways based on assumptions about neuroscientific knowledge production and applicability of neuroscientific results. But what is it in neuroscience that relates to discussions about human enhancement? How has the production of knowledge within the neurosciences anticipated or dismantled the hopes and wishes for cognitive enhancement? Have neuroscientific practices related to such notions as ’successful ageing’ offered new perspectives to the human enhancement debate? Drawing on a historical analysis of the concept of successful ageing in neuroscience publications from the 1980s till today, this paper will discuss how the aims and the production of knowledge within age-related neuroscience are connected to ideas about ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3899436 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:00:14 +0100 3899436 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3858197&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F08%2F12%2Fbeyond-the-magic-bullet-reframing-the-history-of-antibiotics%2F Christoph Gradmann and Flurin Condrau of the ESF network Drug Standards, Standard Drugs are planning a workshop on the theme ‘Beyond the Magic Bullet: Reframing the History of Antibiotics’, to take place in Oslo, 17-19 March 2011. Antibiotics have been celebrated as a medical success story around the globe from their first distribution at the end of WWII to the present day [...] As agents of a medical revolution which shifted borders between health and disease and created new spaces for therapy, antibiotics have become one of the most popular scientific success stories of the twentieth century. [This] workshop will focus on recent and current research into the histories of antibiotics, which has started to move beyond the initial stories of the discovery of penicillin and the r... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3858197 Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:00:11 +0100 3858197 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3816447&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F08%2F04%2Fbiography-of-a-collection-or-a-collector%2F Donna Bilak’s review of Frances Larson’s An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World (Oxford UP, 2009) points to an interesting contradiction in Larson’s book — is it a biography of the collection or of the collector? Larson’s explicit intent is to write “a biography of this gargantuan, amorphous, ethnographic collection”, but in practice , Bilak claims, the structure and content of the book puts Wellcome rather than his collection in the center. Oxford University Press tries to solve the problem on the book’s website, when writing that “An Infinity of Things tells the story of the greatest private collection ever made, and the life of the man behind it”. But can you have it both ways? Or do you, as B... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3816447 Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:00:08 +0100 3816447 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3714231&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F07%2F01%2Fwhy-bother-so-what%2F My family made summer vacation plans quite some time ago, so I’m going to miss Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine’s swan-song conference titled ‘The Future of Medical History’, to be held at Goodenough College, London, 15-17 July. The preliminary programme lists a large array of interesting papers. Those interested in displaying recent biomedical science display might for example be interested in hearing Sander Gilman speak on ”Representing Health and Illness: Thoughts for the 21st Century”,  Monica Green on ”Letting the Genome Out of the Bottle: On Creating Alliances Between Medical History and the Historicist Sciences”, Sammy Lee on “Where are the clones?: A brief history of human cloning” — and liste... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3714231 Thu, 01 Jul 2010 08:00:45 +0100 3714231 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3590368&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F05%2F23%2Fscience-as-a-material-and-sensuous-world-vs-history-of-science-as-a-textual-and-disembodied-world%2F Here’s the introduction to a talk titled ‘Cultures of Meaning and Cultures of Presence: The use of material objects in the history of science, medicine and technology’ that I gave at the Museo da Ciencia da Universidade Lisboa two weeks ago (see flyer here and resumé in Portuguese here); the images are from the web and for general illustration only: Before I went into history of science and medicine (and then medical museology), I took a Masters in chemistry, zoology and historical geology (major). Today, when I look back on my student years at a distance, I realise these disciplines were very much about the handling of tangible material stuff, involving all five senses. Chemistry, zoology and geology students were not just thinking about or viewing the world ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3590368 Sun, 23 May 2010 10:39:19 +0100 3590368 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3549371&cid=t_92659_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F05%2F10%2Fmad-pride-movement-meets-in-toronto%2F I haven’t written a lot about the “mad pride” movement in the world, because frankly I don’t know what to make of it. I’ve lived my entire life seeing people I love devastated by the effects of mental illness, including a good friend who took his own life because of his deep depression. Contrast that with people who have been forcibly medicated, only to find when they stopped the medication, they could get better on their own, and I’m left scratching my head. Of course, these are just two anecdotes out of the millions of stories we live and breathe about mental illness. To me, there is no “right answer” about the One True Path to find enlightenment or to relieve one’s suffering from mental illness. So when I read an article in the Natio... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3549371 Mon, 10 May 2010 10:38:27 +0100 3549371 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3515425&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F29%2Fthe-historiography-of-the-interaction-between-science-and-medical-practice-conflict-or-coop%2F I’m not sure I understand which historians of contemporary medicine Steve Sturdy is arguing against in this talk next Wednesday: Recent accounts of the role of science in the development of medical practice have tended to concentrate on instances of tension between scientists and practitioners. This paper revisits the historiography, and suggests that historians have often inadvertently adopted essentialised accounts of scientific and clinical culture, and assumed that those cultures necessarily exist in tension with one another. Historians have reinforced these assumptions by seeking out instances of conflict, while neglecting the many ways in which science and medicine have developed in concert with one another. In so doing, they have restricted their own ability to comment on the... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3515425 Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:00:18 +0100 3515425 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3508221&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F27%2Fthe-rising-star-of-the-brain%2F Even though the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL is heading towards its ultimate death, it is still organising some pretty interesting seminars. For example, Maximilian Stadler’s (MPI-WG, Berlin) talk, titled ‘Cerebro-centrism and the History of the Neurosciences’, on Thursday 13 May at 4pm: ‘Surely the rising star of body parts in the 1980s’, historian Elaine Showalter noted in 1987, must have been the brain. Its rising star – largely, of course, thanks to the impressive expansions of the neurosciences ever since – then also made coalesce a field of historical scholarship which usually, and perhaps a bit too sloppily, is labeled just that: the history of the neurosciences. Timely enough an endeavor it is; histories of the neuroscience... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3508221 Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:08:45 +0100 3508221 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3480801&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F18%2Fwant-to-renew-wellcome-librarys-outreach-activities-web-presence-etc%2F The Wellcome Library is announcing a vacancy as Head of Discovery and Engagement. The successful applicant is supposed to play a pivotal role in making the Library’s outstanding collections accessible, help revolutionise the Library’s web presence and reading-room services, and lead its outreach, communication and marketing activities. For more info, see here. Closing date is 10 May. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3480801 Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:45:14 +0100 3480801 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3479699&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F16%2Fthe-swansong-conference-of-the-wellcome-trust%2F The Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicne at UCL has circulated an announcement for a conference which “represents our swansong and statement of what we would have liked to have been allowed to achieve in the history of medicine”. Appropriately titled ‘The Future of Medical History’, the conference will take place on 15-17 July 2010 at Goodenough College in London. Send an abstract and contact details to Lauren Cracknell (l.cracknell@ucl.ac.uk) by 1 June 2010. “Due to current circumstances”, the Centre will not be able to cover the cost of travel or accommodation. Look for further details on the Centre’s website soonish. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3479699 Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:40:37 +0100 3479699 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3479700&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F16%2Ffurther-on-the-closing-of-the-centre-for-the-history-of-medicine%2F As you can see from the comments on yesterday’s post, the closing of the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine seems unbelievable (or a April Fools Day prank). The Centre’s  outreach historian, Carole Reeves, has asked for the following message to be posted: It is with regret that the Wellcome Trust and University College London announce the decision to work towards closure of the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL. Both the Wellcome Trust and UCL acknowledge the significant achievements of the Centre over the years. The decision follows discussions between the senior staff of both organisations and consideration by the Board of Governors of the Wellcome Trust. In accordance with Trust practice, the closure of the Centre will be phased over a two... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3479700 Fri, 16 Apr 2010 18:33:20 +0100 3479700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3471818&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F15%2Fwellcome-centre-for-the-history-of-medicine-is-closing-down%2F Today’s sad news for historians of medicine (of all periods and specialities) is that the Wellcome Trust and University College London (UCL) have decided to close the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine. It will be winded down over a two-year period. The decision probably doesn’t come as a surprise to those of us who have followed the Centre closely during the last couple of years. Nevertheless it is sad news. The Centre — which was established in 1999 when the Academic Unit of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine was taken over by UCL — is probably best known among the general educated public in the English-speaking world as the institution where the late Roy Porter worked. For specialists in the history of medicine it has been a site... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3471818 Thu, 15 Apr 2010 15:44:02 +0100 3471818 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3471819&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F15%2Fscience-museum%25e2%2580%2599s-new-history-of-medicine-website-_brought-to-life_%2F Science Museum’s new history of medicine website Brought to Life has been completed and is available online. 4000 new images of artefacts from the collections linked to 16 specialised themes on medicine across time. Each theme Belief and medicine Birth and death Controversies and medicine Diagnosis Diseases and epidemics Hospitals Mental health and illness Practising medicine Public health Science and medicine Surgery Technology and medicine Medical traditions Treatments and cures Understanding the body War and medicine is associated with bibliographies and interactives suitable for teaching at several levels. Under a creative commons policy the images are available for download. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3471819 Thu, 15 Apr 2010 09:33:09 +0100 3471819 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3457856&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F11%2Fthe-aesthetics-of-derelict-medical-instruments-and-devices%2F As you may remember, we here at Medical Museion have a soft spot with the aesthetics of decay, especially delapidated medical instruments (see, for example, this post). This great image epitomizes the notion of the aesthetics of decay. It’s shot in an abandoned surgery room somewhere in the eastern part of Berlin, in the former Sovjet sector. Photo by Andreas Swane © All rights reserved. Used with kind permission. More here.  Andreas describes himself as “a hobby photographer from Oslo”, who hopes that his future photo specialty “will be derelict / abandoned places here and there”. “The beauty of old and decayed places fascinates me”, he says on his Flickr page. (thanks to Øystein for the tip) (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3457856 Sun, 11 Apr 2010 15:03:44 +0100 3457856 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3448892&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F04%2F08%2Freading-artefacts-do-we-really-read-them-2%2F I just got a mail saying that the Canada Science and Technology Museum is organising a summer institute in material culture research on the theme ‘Reading Artefacts’, in Ottawa, 16-20 August. Anyone interested in material research and museum artefacts — grad students, postdocs, faculty “teaching history through artifacts” and historians who are “looking to expand their research methods” — are welcome to attend. Because of the venue, there will probably be a lot of focus on sci, tech and med museum artefacts. Great initative. My only hesitation is the title — Reading Artefacts. What do the organisers actually mean by reading an artefact? In my understanding of reading, there is a text to be read. But an artefact is not a text (unless the... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3448892 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 09:18:35 +0100 3448892 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3302353&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F24%2Fmedicine-2-0-in-a-historical-perspective%2F I’m thrilled by the fact that an historian of medicine (Richard Barnett of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science in Cambridge) will chair a panel debate on health care in the digital age (taking place in Cambridge, UK, on Thursday) — it sustains the tendency that historians of medicine are becoming more engaged in contemporary debates about the health care system; and almost always for the better. Titled ‘Saved by SMS’, the panel debate is about a worldwide healthcare system in crisis and the future prospects of bringing health care practitioners and patients into the digital information age: From tracking malaria drugs in the developing world by SMS, sharing information about disease outbreaks via social networking sites, to empowering patients and do... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3302353 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:00:55 +0100 3302353 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3290827&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F20%2Fusing-the-rete-list-for-collective-curating-online%2F Recently I announced a quiz to get more information about a historical syringe that a couple of friends had bought for me. This quiz was far from easy since we had no information on the syringe whatsoever. Medical Museion’s guest researcher and former chief physician Sven Erik Hansen was the first to make a suggestion on our Danish blog — he thought it might had been be used to treat haemorrhoids. Sven Erik’s was a qualified guess, but it seems like the area of expertise that we are dealing with here is rather odontology. Thomas put a query about the syringe on rete, the mailing list for curators, historians, students, collectors, dealers, etc, interested in the history of scientific instruments, and immediately received some very interesting answers. Fi... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3290827 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 08:00:44 +0100 3290827 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283562&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F18%2Fmoulage-moulage%2F As we’ve written about before, we have a small but excellent (and recently restored) collection of moulages here at Medical Museion. Like they have many places in Europe. Which made me quite excited to read Jim Edmonson’s travel report from Paris and the Musée des moulages de l’hôpital Saint-Louis 1 avenue Claude-Vellefaux: Read more here. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283562 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:45:38 +0100 3283562 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283563&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F18%2Fcontemporary-bodies-new-technologies-new-collections%2F A few months ago, I advertised the meeting ‘KörperGegenwart, neue Technologien, neue Sammlungen’ to be held at the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden, 22-24 April. Now the program has been finalised — and it looks very good! After a plenary discussion on ‘Schauplätze der Schönheit: Klinik, Kunst, Medien und Museen’ on Thursday evening, there follows two days of presentations, most of which seem to be very relevant for the future of medical and science museums: ‘Körperspuren im Deutschen Hygiene-Museum. Strategien und Objekte’ (Susanne Roeßiger, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden) ‘Auf Biegen und Brechen. Zur (In)Formierung des Körpers’ (Stefan Rieger, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) ‘Der Körper und seine Teile. Vom Präparat ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283563 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:00:30 +0100 3283563 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3272928&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F15%2Fwebinar-on-sars-learning-from-an-epidemic-of-fear%2F Sanjoy Bhattacharya (Reader at the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL) invites us all to participate in a webinar organised in connection with the first event of the 2010 series of the World Health Organization Global Health Histories Seminars (you can see the full list of seminars here). The topic of the webinar is ‘SARS: Learning from an epidemic of fear’, and it takes place this upcoming Wednesday 17 February, 12:30-2:30 pm (Central European Time): The 2003 outbreak of SARS, a deadly new infectious disease, sparked worldwide alarm. It caused more than 8 000 cases and almost 800 deaths in at least 25 countries. Its spread was halted only by emergency international action. In the opening presentation of this new seminar series, health psychologist Profe... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3272928 Mon, 15 Feb 2010 11:00:53 +0100 3272928 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3271045&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F14%2Fmedical-museums-in-toulouse%2F Since the snow descended upon Copenhagen a month ago everybody has been walking around wrapped up in scarfs and woollen clothing, trying to avoid the snowdrifts. Personally, my thoughts wander off to a warmer place — more specifically Southern France, where I took some needed holiday last summer and visited, among other things, the two medical museums in Toulouse. Being a foreigner in France is not easy. The lingua franca in France is French which can be quite a challenge if one is far from a native French speaker. Not many people in the region speak English, and all signs (even in museums) are written in the native tongue. That’s a shame — there is a fascinating culture and history to be told, but unfortunately much of this history is missed if one does not speak or rea... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3271045 Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:00:41 +0100 3271045 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3262629&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F11%2Fthe-contemporary-history-of-peptic-ulcer%2F Last September, we announced the call for an upcoming meeting on digestive history in Dublin 30 April–1 May. Now it has materialised with a programme. As expected most talks are about 19th and early 20th century, with one exception — Katherine Angel (Warwick University) who will speak about “A Very Simple Answer: Causal Reasoning in the Last Twenty Five Years of Peptic Ulcer”. For more information or to register, contact michael.liffey@ucd.ie. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3262629 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:59:50 +0100 3262629 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3259008&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F09%2Fgreat-expectations-neuroscience-in-the-21st-century-and-beyond%2F As mentioned in a previous blogpost, I’m currently doing a ph.d.-project here at Medical Museion concerning the history of the concept of successful aging in neuroscience and its relation to ideas on cognitive enhancement. Part of my work, therefore, is going to conferences like this one, held in Copenhagen last week: The conference was arranged by the Danish research center GNOSIS, and featured both neuroscientists and philosophers – as an attempt to bridge the disciplinary boundaries and maybe produce some kind of synergy. The first day especially had that feeling. Themed under the headline ‘Brain Plasticity’ and featuring, among others, the English philosophical-minded neuroscientist Steven Rose, German phenomenological philosopher and psychiatrist Thomas Fuchs, and Danish bio... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3259008 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:13:22 +0100 3259008 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3246908&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F06%2Finstruments-on-display%2F Medical museums are usually full with old and new medical science instruments. But they tend to be kept in storage because it is difficult to display them in a meaningful way. It’s much easier to put moulages, pickled organs and surgical instruments on show. Medical science instruments usually need truckload of description and contextualisaton to make sense in museum displays. (Probably because they don’t ‘talk’, some people would say :-) Also, few museum curators give much thought to the historicity of their display techniques. How have display practices changed over time and how do these practices reflect museum culture, politics and technologies? Such question wil hopefully be discussed at the 29th symposium of the Scientific Instrument Commission, which will be... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3246908 Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:00:53 +0100 3246908 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3243814&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F02%2F05%2Fdittrick-museums-blog%2F Speaking about Jim Edmonson and the Dittrick Museum (i.e., the medical museum at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland), I’ve forgotten to tell you that they have just launched an institutional blog called — ‘Dittrick Museum’. Follow it here. Welcome to the medical museum blog sector! (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3243814 Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:00:37 +0100 3243814 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3201746&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F24%2Fnordic-medical-histroy-meeting-2011%2F The 23rd Nordic Medical History Congress will be held in Oslo, 25-27 May 2011. Contact Olav Hamran, Norwegian National Medical Museum (medisin@tekniskmuseum.no) for more info. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3201746 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 08:00:01 +0100 3201746 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3200470&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F23%2Fwhat-is-science-communication-for-in-a-postindustrial-society%2F Just saw the early spring Monday seminar program at UCL’s STS department. I like the nice British analytical touch to it. Much more interesting than the usual fashionable Latouresque ANTsemiotics and other STS’ese sociolects. For example: Jeremy Howick, ‘When can we trust the experts? Defending the Evidence Based Medicine stance’, 25 January David Healy, ‘They used to call it Medicine’, 1 February Sam Schweber, ‘Writing the Biography of Hans Bethe’, 8 February Jane Gregory, ‘Producing the post-Fordist public, or: What is Science Communication for in a post-industrial society?’, 22 February Helena Sheehan, ‘What (if anything) has Marxism to contribute to science studies?’, 8 March Jeff Hughes, ‘Before the bomb:... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3200470 Sat, 23 Jan 2010 08:00:11 +0100 3200470 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3197696&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F22%2Fa-genealogical-study-of-the-concept-of-successful-aging-iii-%25e2%2580%2599successful-aging%25e2%2580%2599-in-the-neurosciences-and-the-link-to-cognitive-enhancement%2F This is the last part of my project description for the Ph.D.-project called “A genealogical study of the concept of ’successful aging’ and its relation to the idea of ‘human enhancement”. See the first two parts here and here.  ’Successful aging’ in the neurosciences and the link to ‘cognitive enhancement’ In order to narrow the problem field, the project will look closely at how the notion of ‘successful aging’ has been understood and defined in the field of neuroscience in the last decades, and how ‘successful cognitive aging’ has played together with discussions — both in the scientific literature, in science policy documents and in general public discourse — about the possibility for so called ‘cognitive enhancement’ (‘neuro... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3197696 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 08:00:42 +0100 3197696 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3189178&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F20%2Fa-genealogical-study-of-the-concept-of-successful-aging-ii-the-relation-between-%25e2%2580%2599successful-aging%25e2%2580%2599-and-%25e2%2580%2598human-enhancement%25e2%2580%2599%2F This is the second part of my project description for the Ph.D.-project called ‘A genealogical study of the concept of ’successful aging’ and its relation to the idea of ‘human enhancement’. See the first part here. The relation between ’successful aging’ and ‘human enhancement’ The project will particularly focus on an analysis of the possible connection between ideas about the prevention and treatment of age-related diseases, on the one hand, and the current merging discourse on ‘human enhancement’, on the other. Like ‘successful aging’, the notion of ‘human enhancement’ — including a large variety of different ideas about the future possibilities for technological improvements of human bodies — became widely spread in the 1980’s and... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3189178 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:00:10 +0100 3189178 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3182201&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F18%2Fa-genealogical-study-of-the-concept-of-successful-aging-i%2F I’ve just begun my ph.d.-project here at Medical Museion. Titled ”A genealogical study of the concept of successful aging and its relation to the idea of human enhancement”, the project is financed by the new Center for Healthy Aging at the Faculty of Health Sciences. Below is the first part of the project description concerning the notion of successful aging. In two following parts I will first introduce the possible relation between successful aging and human enhancement, and then my attempt to narrow the project to cognitive aspects of ageing and cognitive enhancement. Comments to one or all three parts are much appreciated. The genealogy of the notion of ’successful aging’ At present there is much focus on the notion of successful aging (healthy aging, opti... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3182201 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:00:39 +0100 3182201 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3142601&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2010%2F01%2F05%2Fsyringe-quiz%2F A couple of friends who know about my interest in the history of disease recently gave me a historical syringe as a gift. They bought it in a flea marked, so unfortunately I don’t have any information about its provenance. Ion Meyer (conservator and head of collections here at the Medical Museion) suggests, with some help from catalouges of medical equipment, that it might have been made in 1940’s or 1950’s, but unfortunately we could not get any closer. And this is where you, dear reader, might be of assistance: Where and when is it from? How comon was this particular type of syringe? When did it go out of style? The syringe is marked JS and is easily dismantled as seen below. This quiz will continue until January 31. There will be small prize (a guide... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3142601 Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:32:10 +0100 3142601 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3075538&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F12%2F09%2Fcontemporary-medical-science-and-technology-as-a-challenge-for-museums-copenhagen-16-19-september-2010%2F Here’s the announcement for a conference to be held here at Medical Museion next September: Contemporary medical science and technology as a challenge for museums Copenhagen, 16-19 September, 2010 The 15th biannual conference of the European Association of Museums for the History of Medical Sciences (EAMHMS) will be held at Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Thursday 16 – Saturday 19 September, 2010. The image of medicine that emerges from most museum galleries and exhibitions is still dominated by pre-modern and modern understandings of an anatomical and physiological body, and by the diagnostic and therapeutical methods and instruments used to intervene with the body at the ‘molar’ and tangible level — limbs, organs, tissues, etc. The rapid transition i... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3075538 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:03:49 +0100 3075538 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071195&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F12%2F09%2Fcontemporary-medical-science-and-technology-as-a-challenge-for-museums-copenhagen-16-19-september-2010%2F Here’s the announcement for a conference to be held here at Medical Museion next September: Contemporary medical science and technology as a challenge for museums Copenhagen, 16-19 September, 2010 The 15th biannual conference of the European Association of Museums for the History of Medical Sciences (EAMHMS) will be held at Medical Museion, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Thursday 16 – Saturday 19 September, 2010. The image of medicine that emerges from most museum galleries and exhibitions is still dominated by pre-modern and modern understandings of an anatomical and physiological body, and by the diagnostic and therapeutical methods and instruments used to intervene with the body at the ‘molar’ and tangible level — limbs, organs, tissues, etc. The rapid transition i... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071195 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:03:49 +0100 3071195 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3063280&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F12%2F07%2Fthe-recent-history-of-medical-technology-piecing-it-together-from-memoirs-and-reminiscences%2F One of the challenges for a museum of medicine intent on collecting recent and contemporary medical artefacts is to get an overview of the historical development of medical instruments, medical technological systems and the medical device industry. Trade shows and their catalogues (published or online) are excellent sources. But memoirs and reminiscences of people who have been engaged in the trade show business can also be useful —  they add a more personal perspective to the dry historical data, they are more fun to read than catalogues, and you can probably construct a useful picture of trends by piecing their more or less idiosyncratic stories together. Take for example Wolfgang Albath, a pioneer in laboratory medicine and one of the founding organisers of the world`s larg... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3063280 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:00:31 +0100 3063280 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044781&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F12%2F01%2Fspeaking-of-uncollectables%2F … I just found a blogpost titled: Coffee, Sex, and Other Weird Ways to Not Get Sick. It lists seven weird ways for helping your immune system: 1. Kiss (and while you’re at it, have Sex)! 2. Listen to music. 3. Walk Really Fast, But Don’t Run! 4. Don’t Blow Your Nose. 5. Get Hot! 6. Avoid the Desert (or any hot and dry climate). 7. Drink Coffee! Even if this list of great advices may seem a bit, well … unconventional, it reminded me of the many everyday health practices people perform that never become displayed in medical museums. These practices are (for good reasons) not institutionalized, but are nevertheless integral parts of the lives of thousands of people in the Western world. From a museum point of view, it is not exactly easy to collect such aspects of public he... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044781 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:00:04 +0100 3044781 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3035905&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F28%2Fis-biomedicine-making-the-body-invisible-and-immaterial-and-uncollectable%2F Is it really the case that almost all museum exhibitions dealing with medical themes these days are displaying DNA-images and colourful neuroscanning pictures? Well, at least this is what the organisers of a meeting in Dresden next April seem to be suggesting. I think they are exaggerating a bit :-). But that said, the theme of the meeting — KörperGegenwart, neue Technologien, neue Sammlungen [contemporary bodies, new technologies, new collections] — is right on the spot. The point of departure for the meeting — jointly organised by Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung in Berlin and Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden — is that the colonisation of the body by means of the life sciences has resulted in a gradual retreat from the immediately visible and materi... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3035905 Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:34:13 +0100 3035905 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3033606&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F27%2Fcuratorial-and-artistic-techniques-in-investigating-and-presenting-biomedical-bodies%2F We are of course not the only museum that struggles with how to juggle art, science, materiality and medicine in our exhibitions. Next Friday, 4 December, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at University of Cambridge is organising a most interesting afternoon symposium titled ‘Assembling Bodies: Art, Science & Imagination’. Curators and artistic contributors to MAA’s current experimental exhibition with the same name will explore techniques of investigation and presentation — including relationships between the body and material things, the potential of exhibitions as research projects, incorporating different sensory engagements in museum display, and accommodating multiple audiences. After an opportunity to see the current exhibition there will be four p... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3033606 Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:00:30 +0100 3033606 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3029837&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F26%2Fmuseums-as-graveyards-for-dead-objects-or-as-echo-rooms-for-talking-objects%2F Last year we had a discussion on this blog (see here and here) about whether objects ‘talk’ — no, they don’t! But do they ’die’? The UCL-based Autopsies group (associated with Film Studies) suggests they do. The group runs a cultural studies project called “Autopsies: The Afterlife of Dead Objects” to explore this morbid issue. Here’s how they reason about the ‘death’ of objects: Just as the twentieth century was transformed by the advent of new forms of media—the typewriter, gramophone, and film, for example—the arrival of the twenty-first century has brought the phasing out of many public and private objects that only recently seemed essential to ‘modern life.’ What is the modern, then, wit... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3029837 Thu, 26 Nov 2009 08:00:33 +0100 3029837 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3026706&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F25%2Fa-private-museum-of-historical-medical-artefacts-on-the-web%2F Like most other kinds of historical artefacts, medical objects from the past are scattered all over. Some are safely deposited in museums, small or large; others are in private collections; others again are circulating between private collectors, mediated by eBay and other auction services (and some, especially plastic objects from contemporary medicine, are contributing to landfill). Whereas most public collections are online, most private are not. An inspiring exception from this internet invisibility of private collections is Donald Blaufox’s Museum of Historical Medical Artifacts. Working as a professor in nuclear medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University Dr. Blaufox has spent much of his spare time in the last thirty years building up a collection... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3026706 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:30:05 +0100 3026706 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3015306&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F20%2Fan-unknown-norwegian-dentistry-collection-celebrates-its-125th-birthday%2F I’m probably not the only person who has a soft spot for unknown collections, especially if they turn out to be rich and reasonably well-curated. Today I became aware of the odontological collection at the University of Oslo, which goes back to the 1880’s when the Norwegian Dentists Association began acquiring objects; it was handed over to the Norwegian State Institute of Dentistry in 1915 and was later taken over by the Odontological Faculty of the Unversity of Oslo. The last 12 years parts of the collection has been registered by a group of retired dentists — so far they have put 2266 objects online. See all the objects here. The search function of the database is not without problems and the quality of the descriptions and images is variable at best — but what a... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3015306 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:00:43 +0100 3015306 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981115&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F11%2Fmeeting-on-university-collections-and-their-integration-into-everyday-uni-life%2F German-speaking medical museum curators should be interested in a symposium on university museums and collections to be held at the Humboldt University, Berlin, 18 – 20 February 2010 , organised by the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum fur Kulturtechnik and the Berliner Medizinhistorischen Museum der Charite: Das Symposium setzt sich u.a. zum Ziel, gemeinsam nach neuen Aufgaben fur Universitätsmuseen und -sammlungen zu suchen, Strategien zu entwickeln, um den Fortbestand der Sammlungen sicherzustellen und Zukunftskonzepte zu erörtern, die traditionelle Universitätssammlungen besser in den Hochschulalltag integrieren und den heutigen Anspruchen von Forschung, Lehre und Wissenschaftskommunikation gerecht werden. Daruber hinaus soll ein Netzwerk fur Universitätsmuseen und -sammlungen i... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981115 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:59:08 +0100 2981115 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981116&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F10%2Fwhat-does-medical-progress-mean-a-philosophical-perspective%2F Historians of medicine have largely eschewed notions like ‘progress’ and ‘advance’ in medical science and medical practice in favour of more historicist and relativistic understandings. But for medical practitioners and patients alike, the notions of ‘progress’ and ‘advance’ usually make more sense. Some philosophers too think it is time to refocus on the idea of ‘medical progress’. A forthcoming conference at the University of Bristol (13-15 April 2010) will address the following topics: To identify progressive trends in current medicine, we need to understand the nature of historical progress more clearly. Has medicine always progressed? If not when did it begin to progress, and why? Historians have long debated these questions.... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981116 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:21:32 +0100 2981116 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2970243&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F07%2Fpopular-dissection-pics%2F Guess what’s currently the most popular history of medicine topic among American science readers. Plague? Noops — it’s dissection and body parts: John Harley Warner and Jim Edmonson’s beautifully illustrated Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in American Medicine 1880-1930 (see earlier post about the book here) is right now among Amazon’s Top Ten Best Books of Science (in Science Editor’s Picks). Congrats, dear colleagues! (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2970243 Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:09:11 +0100 2970243 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2967319&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F06%2Fpsychiatric-museums-and-the-history-of-psychiatry%2F Psychiatric museums have come a long way since their early days. Before the 1980s, private collections of aficionados made up the field. Since then, several psychiatric museums have emerged. Today, these institutions have turned into modern museums creating numerous exhibitions and reaching large audiences. The most successful of the psychiatric museums have more than 140.000 visitors a year. In addition, collaboration between various psychiatric museums has become an important issue, especially for the museums in Europe. In June 2009, the joint project “Connecting the European Mind” was approved by the Education, Audiovisual and Cultural Executive Agency (EACEA) This project will lead to a number of multilateral initiatives in the period 2009-2011. Furthermore, international conferenc... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2967319 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:18:44 +0100 2967319 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2963124&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F05%2Fscientific-instruments-in-the-history-and-philosophy-of-medical-science%2F The creative editors or Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science (see earlier mention here) are planning a focused discussion section on scientific instruments in a forthcoming issue of the journal. With the “practical turn” in history and philosophy of science came a renewed interest in scientific instruments. Although they have become a nexus for worries about empiricism and standards of evidence, instruments only rarely feature as primary sources for scholars in the history and philosophy of science. Even historians of technology have been accused of underutilizing the evidence embodied in material objects (Corn 1996). The fundamental questions are not settled. First, there is no general agreement as to what counts as a scientific instrument: Are ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2963124 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:00:51 +0100 2963124 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2950757&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F11%2F02%2Fwant-to-be-a-medical-museum-director-in-glasgov%2F The Hunterian Museum in Glasgow is looking for a new director. More here. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2950757 Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:09:53 +0100 2950757 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2927330&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F10%2F26%2Fmedicine-archives-and-researching-lives%2F Looks immediately like an innovative angle to the study of lives in science — that is, Wellcome Library’s and the British Records Association’s upcoming conference Researching Lives: Medicine, science and archives on the 8th December at Wellcome Collection in London. The one-day meeting will deal with the resources available in medical and scientific archives to build up pictures of individual lives — i.e., manuscripts and personal papers, films and photographs, forensic evidence and physical remains, etc. Speakers include Georgina Ferry (science writer), Julianne Simpson and Helen Wakely (Wellcome Library), Simon Chaplin (Royal College of Surgeons), Tim Boon (Science Museum), Paul Carter and Natalie Whistance (the National Archives) and Allan Jamieson (Fo... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2927330 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:17:59 +0100 2927330 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2842566&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F09%2F29%2Fdigestive-history%2F My stomach rumbled with excitement when I read the call for papers for a workshop titled ‘History, Digestion and Society: New Perspectives’ at University College Dublin, 30 April – 1 May 2010, organised at the Centre for the History of Medicine in Ireland. As the organisers (Ian Miller and Mike Liffey) point out, diet and digestion are neglected in histories of the body, health and medicine. And diseases of the digestive system, like dyspepsia, peptic ulcer disease, vomiting etc., are not properly historically contextualised: (image of knitted stomach from Strange but Trewe) Meanwhile, historical analysis of issues related to food and eating often reveals a tendency to stress the political elements of historical events at the expense of the biological and medical. Topics... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2842566 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:00:49 +0100 2842566 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2772539&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F09%2F07%2Fare-we-on-the-edge-of-a-robot-revolution-in-medicine%2F After the large-scale renovation of its permanent collection in 2005, the Hunterian Museum in London has expanded its outreach programme under the leadership of senior curator Simon Chaplin.  Today, the museum opens another new temporary show,  “Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots“. Running until 23 December, the exhibition displays the world of medical robotics. On show are things like the Probot (1991), a robot designed to aid prostate gland surgery; Freehand, a robotic camera holder for keyhole surgery; mini-robots designed to make their own way around the inside of the human body; the prototype Robotic Camera Pill (2005); and the ARES Robot prototype (2009) which requires patients to swallow up to 15 different modules which then re-assemble inside the body into a lar... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2772539 Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:00:42 +0100 2772539 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2768651&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F09%2F05%2Fnew-exhibition-primary-substances-treasures-from-the-history-of-protein-research%2F   Yesterday, at last, we opened our new exhibition — ‘Primary Substances: treasures from the history of protein research’ — in the main building of the Faculty of Health Sciences here in Copenhagen.  ‘Primary Substances’ is about protein research in the long time perspective, from the early 19th century to the present. However, the main focus is on analytical protein studies between the 1930s and 1980s, i.e., before the emergence of comtemporary proteomics. The immediate occasion for the show was the newly opened Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research (the exhibition has been paid for by the foundation; no strings attached!). But the scope is much broader, because CPR evidently stands on the shoulders of generations of protein resear... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2768651 Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:40:39 +0100 2768651 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2724892&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F08%2F21%2Fthe-history-of-hypochondria-as-mediated-by-artists-writer-and-philosophers%2F My GP once told me I suffer from ‘conscious hypochondria’ — every cough, every bout of fever, is a source of great anxiety. So maybe it would help me to attend the afternoon symposium on ‘Culture and Hypochondria’ at Tate Britain, London, on Friday 18 September 2009. The speakers — Julia Borossa, Steven Connor, Brian Dillon, Darian Leader, and Caroline Rooney —will explore the history and contemporary meaning of illness and anxiety as mediated by artists, writers and philosophers: Hypochondria is an ancient name for a malady that is always fretfully new: the fear of disease and the experience of one’s body as alien and unpredictable. Its history is ambiguous: an organic disease with verifiable symptoms, it slowly lost its physical attributes... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2724892 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:53:32 +0100 2724892 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2691539&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F08%2F12%2Fartefacts-meeting-at-science-museum-20-22-september%2F The program for the Artefacts meeting at Science Museum, 20-22 September, has been finalised. It looks great! Medical Museion’s former senior curator Søren Bak-Jensen (now at the Copenhagen City Museum) will present some of the ideas behind the current exhibition ‘Split+Splice: Fragments from the Age of Biomedicine’. Here is the whole list of papers for the meeting: Bruce Lewenstein, Cornell University. Can museum visitors learn about the relation of science and technology in museums? Peter Donhauser, Vienna Museum of Technology. Science versus technology in a museum’s display. Changes in the Vienna Museum. Benjamin Gross, Princeton University. “The Antithesis of the Attic”: Historical Artifacts, “Interactive” Exhibits, and the Presentation of Science a... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2691539 Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:00:57 +0100 2691539 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2678671&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F08%2F06%2Fa-new-history-of-surgery-exhibition-in-dundee%2F While eagerly waiting for Jonas’ reports on medical museums in southern France, I’m reading the news about the recently opened exhibition ‘Delicate Operation: the History of Surgery in Tayside’ at the Tayside Medical History Museum in Dundee. The exhibition traces the history of surgery in the Dundee region, exploring the careers of some of the region’s most eminent surgeons of the past 200 years, the early development of surgical specialities, changes in theatre design and the history of local instrument manufacturers. It is on show at the Medical School, Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, until 29 November. Judged from their website the exhibition concept and design looks pretty traditional — but the artefacts seem to be gorgeous. (Source: Biomedic... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2678671 Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:14:30 +0100 2678671 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2653805&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F07%2F30%2Fuse-the-current-lingua-franca-please%2F Two months ago I praised John Harley Warner’s and Jim Edmonson’s book Dissection: Photographs of a Rite of Passage in America, 1880-1930. As Kirsten Jungersen points out in a comment, one of our former staff members here at Medical Museion, Mikkel Jessen, wrote about dissection as a rite-of-passage in an article in the journal Bibliotek for Læger already in September 2002 (pp. 260-69). Mikkel’s is a short but excellent article on four different ways in which dissection has been displayed: Rembrandt’s ‘De anatomishe les’, Hogarth’s ‘The four stages of cruelty’, Simonet’s ‘La autopsia’, and a photo of a staged dissection at the Royal Academy of Surgeons in Copenhagen, where the medical students are trained in &#82... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2653805 Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:09:11 +0100 2653805 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2606021&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F07%2F15%2Fwhy-are-hospitals-associated-with-the-colour-green%2F Ever wondered why hospitals are associated with the colour green? Green surgery scrubs, green operating theatres, green-painted instruments, and so on and so forth. A temporary exhibition called ‘Artifact Spotlight: The Colour of Medicine’ at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa shows how the colour green conquered the hospital world during the 20th century: Green was a popular choice. Surgeons first added “spinach-leaf green” to their clothing in 1914 to reduce glare from traditional hospital whites. In the 1930s, hospital decorators used green to influence patient moods. It carried associations with nature, growth and recovery. Tiled surgical suites, patient rooms, clothing and instruments all went green in the post World War Two era. The exhibition cura... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2606021 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:45:34 +0100 2606021 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2602037&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F07%2F14%2Fmore-on-small-animal-guillotines-an-invisible-practice%2F I distributed my memory of being a biochemistry student swinging rats by their tails through the air so the neck landed on a bench edge (no blood, just a momentarily broken neck) to the rete list, adding: It took some training to land it exactly on the edge, though; some less manually skilled students smashed the rat’s back on the table, which only paralysed it. I must confess that I sort of liked this swinging procedure, to the great admiration and horror of some of the other (female) students. Sublime! Gothic biochemistry, to paraphrase Bruce Sterling. This provoked another round of comments, which I take the liberty to quote from (they are publicly accessible in rete’s online archive), because they throw some additional light on the rat guillotine phenomenon. Frank Manasek (c... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2602037 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:51:21 +0100 2602037 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2584199&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F07%2F09%2Flaboratory-guillotines-rules-and-procedures-for-the-use-of-commercial-small-animal-euthanasia-machines%2F Inspired by Morten’s post on the ‘rat guillotine’ that we collected during our first ’Archaeology of Contemporary Biomedicine Garbage Day’ exercise in 2007, I asked the rete list “if there are other ’rat guillotines’ around or if this is a unique Copenhagen death machine?” — and immediately received some interesting answers: Dartmouth anatomist Frank Manasek responds that these weren’t necessarily rat guillotines, but rather general small-animal guillotines: In the US they were available commercially at least in the 1960s when I used one for several years decapitating hamsters. My commercial model looked just like the one illustrated except it didn’t have constraint tubes. Rich Paselk, who heads the Scientific ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2584199 Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:52:30 +0100 2584199 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510985&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F06%2F20%2F15th-congress-of-european-association-of-museums-for-the-history-of-medical-sciences-in-copenhagen-september-2010%2F Make a note in your 2010 calendar already — for the 15th Congress of the European Association of Museums of the History of Medical Sciences (EAMHMS), which will be held here at Medical Museion in Copenhagen, 17-19 September 2010. The congress theme revolves around the question: How can medical history museums contribute to the popular engagement in contemporary medicine and health science? Medicine is in rapid transition. The last fifty years have witnessed tremendous changes in medical science and the health system. Molecular biology has introduced entirely new methods for diagnostics and specific therapeutical regimes, and has boosted a flourishing biotech industry. The digital revolution has given rise to whole new areas of medical technology and medical device industries. Th... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510985 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:06:55 +0100 2510985 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2510988&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F06%2F16%2Feye-catchers-and-swagger-images-a-new-exhibition-about-scientific-posters%2F In addition to Split and Splice, we have recently opened another and smaller exhibition in the reception hall — Eye Catchers and Swagger Images: Research in Poster Format (Danish: Blikfang og blærebilleder: forskning i posterformat) — with a selection of our collection of scientific posters, from the mid-1980s to the present. The idea behind the exhibition goes back to August 2007, when we had a specialist workshop on Biomedicine and Aesthetics in a Museum Context here at Medical Museion, followed by a conference on Biomedicine and Art. One of the speakers at the Biomedicine and Art conference was James Elkins (the Art Institute of Chicago), who spoke about the new impulses for art theory and visual studies presented by science, technology and medicine. Rikke Vindberg,... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2510988 Tue, 16 Jun 2009 08:00:08 +0100 2510988 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2447663&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F06%2F01%2Fdiseases-as-real-entities-or-nominalist-constructs%2F One of the lasting positive impacts of social constructivism on the history of medicine is the notion that diseases are a social constructs. This is not to deny, of course, that there is a biological substrate for illnesses and conditions that lead to the specific deterioration of bodily functions and ultimately to the death of the organism. It just means that there is no necessary distinct, discrete and permanent biological reality behind conditions labelled with disease names. Until recently, I naïvely assumed that the constructivist notion of disease was a product of the 1970s and 1980s. Turns out, however, that this is not a new idea among historians. Already in 1922, historian of medicine Charles Singer wrote in a review of P. G. Crookshank, ed., Influenza, that: We are doubtle... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2447663 Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:02:34 +0100 2447663 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2416956&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F05%2F17%2Fthe-morbid-wunderkammer%2F Joanna Ebenstein’s exhibition ”Morbid Anatomy Cabinet or Gallery as Wunderkammer” has just opened at the Barrister’s Gallery in New Orleans. Find out more about the show on her blog here. Excellent images! (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2416956 Sun, 17 May 2009 09:07:49 +0100 2416956 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2405344&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F05%2F11%2Fsartoblot-ii-s-the-whereabouts%2F As I told in an earlier post, we are working on an exhibition about the history of proteins, which will open at the faculty of Health Sciences in early September. I visited the medical history museum in Uppsala, Sweden, a few months ago to see their astounding collections of clinical chemical artefacts. Here I found, among other things, an electrophoresis apparatus  made by the laboratory device company Sartorius — a so called Sartoblot II-S — a wonderfully coloured box which seems to have been standard equipment in biomedical laboratories in the 1980’s and 1990’s: you can still buy used specimens on the web from second hand dealers.   The problem is that I don’t know how, when and where this kind of apparatus was used in daily practice. Does anybody ha... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2405344 Mon, 11 May 2009 13:11:10 +0100 2405344 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2382538&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F05%2F01%2Fare-there-any-ethical-reasons-not-to-display-forensic-medical-specimens-on-line%2F Sonia Horn, current Director of Collections at the Medical University of Vienna, has recently announced on different email-lists that the collection of specimens from the university’s Department of Forensic Medicine has now been catalogued and digitised in its entirety. Great initiative! But I also noticed that for “ethical reasons” they will not make the collection available on the web; they only give researchers access. Please, satisfy my curatorial curiosity: In our present forensicomedicalized media world, in which TV channels compete feriously about who can show the most revulsive CSI images (like in BBC’s excellent drama series ‘Waking the Dead‘)— what are the ethical reasons for not showing historical forensic science specimens ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2382538 Fri, 01 May 2009 19:27:17 +0100 2382538 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2348410&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F04%2F10%2Frevulsive-abortion-instrument-website%2F My good friend and colleague Jim Edmonson (who is Head of the great Dittrick Medical History Center and Museum at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio) sent me and some of his other colleagues an email the other day. Jim tells the story about how one of his friends, an obstetrician and collector of obstetric and gynaecological instruments, has recently been in an auction bidding war against another collector, named Randi Joe Grantham. It turned out that Grantham was bidding on destructive instruments (cranioclasts, basiotribes, curettes, &c, &c), and paying ridiculous sums for this category of instrumentation. Turns out, it was all acquired to be featured on his anti-abortion website — beware, it is not for the faint of heart: http://www.abortioninstruments.co... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2348410 Sat, 11 Apr 2009 06:46:26 +0100 2348410 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2312710&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F31%2Fputting-our-image-archive-on-flickr%2F Our colleagues at the National Museum of Health and Medicine (in DC) are right now experiencing a dramatically increasing traffic from all over the world to their unofficial Repository of Bottled Monsters blog. From about 100 views a day to 300 views an hour last week. The reason for this stunning outreach success is that Wired.com and many other websites have spread the news about the NMHM staff’s work to put the museum’s picture archive on Flickr. In a few week’s time, more than half a million Flickr users have seen the exquisite collection of images, especially of American war medicine. The US Army (which owns NMHM) are imposing a general ban on letting its employees and institutions have access to Flickr (and other social network sites), so the NMHM staff de... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2312710 Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:00:33 +0100 2312710 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2312714&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F26%2Fhuman-animal-relationship-opportunity-for-research-at-the-phd-level%2F Research animals in the history of 20th century biomedicine has received quite a lot of attention in recent years. And what animal is more interesting than the pig! Our colleagues in Health Services Research Unit here in Copenhagen are announcing a three-year position as PhD-student in a new research project, headed by Lene Koch, called “Modelling pigs and humans: Understanding human/animal connections in translational research”. The general aim of the project is to “investigate the moral, socio-material, technical and organisational work that is needed in order to establish the pig as locus of producing knowledge about human life and disease”. The PhD student they are looking for right now is expected to work on a subproject titled “Extending life: The use of t... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2312714 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:09:58 +0100 2312714 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2312715&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F25%2Fknowledge-ethics-and-representations-of-medicine-and-health-cfp%2F The theme of the 2010 meeting of the Society for the Social History of Medicine in Durham and Newcastle, 8-11 July 2010, will be ‘Knowledge, Ethics and Representations of Medicine and Health: Historical Perspectives’. The organisers particularly encourage proposals for 20 min papers addressing questions such as: What processes have generated knowledge about the body, illness and health that has become authoritative in different societies? How have claims of medical expertise been justified vis à vis claims from other domains of social and cultural authority such as religion and law? What did it mean for medical practitioners in different cultural and social contexts to claim to be ethical as well as knowledgeable? How did they present themselves to the public? What kind of ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2312715 Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:16:26 +0100 2312715 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2257951&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F12%2Fmedicine-and-healthcare-history-and-context%2F The provisional programme for the Society of Social History of Medicine Postgraduate Conference in Dublin (Ireland), 16-18 April 2009 — on the theme ‘Medicine and Healthcare: History and Context’ (could it be more general?) — is now available. See programme in pdf-file here and other conference details here. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2257951 Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:52:01 +0100 2257951 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2257952&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F11%2Fviruses-and-their-visualizations%2F Anyone with the slightest interest in the history of virology and visualizations of viruses will enjoy Frederick Murphy’s powerpoint slide set ‘The Foundations of Medical and Veterinary Virology: Discoverers and Discoveries, Inventors and Inventions, Developers and Technology’ (downloadabe here). The set contains a large number of images of viruses and virologists taken from his own and his colleagues’ image collections, other internet sites, and library collections (I hope he hasn’t breached too many copyrights :-). The slideshow is a chronologically organized catalogue of names, portraits, major inventions and scientific objects and not a history of virology as such — but the image material is very interesting and sometimes stunning (the ima... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2257952 Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:45:34 +0100 2257952 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2257954&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F09%2Fdreamjob-for-a-person-interested-in-research-based-medical-history-outreach%2F If you are on the outlook for a job where you can combine research in medical history with public outreach — here’s your chance: The Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine at the University of Manchester are looking for someone who would like to do 50% of each. The post would, they say in the announcement, “suit a historian of modern medicine, science or allied field, with a recent (or imminent) PhD, who wishes to develop their profile into the expanding area of outreach, while at the same time developing their research experience and profile”. Salary level is £28,839 - £33,432. Read more here. Prof. Michael Worboys (michael.worboys@manchester.ac.uk) can answer informal inquiries. Closing date is 30 March. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2257954 Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:00:05 +0100 2257954 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2257956&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F09%2Fthe-research-physician%2F The status of research physicians, i.e., biomedical researchers who are trained as medical doctors (MD), is an interesting issue in the history of contemporary biomedicine. What makes research physicians so interesting is how their contributions to research compares with scientists who have received 8-10 years of research-oriented training in the BSc - MSc - PhD track, for example in molecular biology, physiology or some other medically relevant subject area. “The MD-PhD wars”, as one blogger (Kristi) puts it: As an undergraduate and graduate student this was a popular water cooler topic of conversation. Who receives better training, who make better scientists? The argument against research physicians is that even though they have received a long training to learn h... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2257956 Mon, 09 Mar 2009 13:00:23 +0100 2257956 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2232638&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F04%2Fbiodigital-lives-making-consuming-and-archiving-the-lives-of-technoscience%2F One of the potentially most interesting workshop titles I’ve seen announced so far this year is ’Biodigital lives: making, consuming and archiving the lives of technoscience’. The meeting — convened by Kate O’Riordan (Sussex) and Adrian Mackenzie (Lancaster) and hosted by the Centre for the Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics (CESAGen), the Centre for Material Digital Culture and the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research at the University of Sussex on 14 July — will “examine issues and questions about digital and biodigital life, lives and identities framed by biosciences, contemporary media and biopolitical cultures”: From the lives of scientists to the technologisation of life, ‘Biodigital lives’ will ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2232638 Wed, 04 Mar 2009 10:38:12 +0100 2232638 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2232639&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F03%2Fscience-museums-new-history-of-medicine-website%2F Science Museum have just aired their new history of medicine website, Brought to Life. Intended for students and educators, it shows some 2,500 newly-made images of objects from the museum’s history of medicine collection together with historical interpretations, interactives and thematic introductions. The plan is to let it grow to 4000 images over the next year. Hopefully we’ll be back with a review soonish. Have someone else tried it yet?  (thanks to Robert Bud for the tip) (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2232639 Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:00:35 +0100 2232639 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2227209&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F03%2F01%2Fvisualization-of-pharmaceutical-industry-activity%2F The history of pharmaceutical and biotech history is pretty difficult to get an overview of. Some daring visualizations would be most helpful. Here’s a promising approach: mktlgcs has created this visualization of FDA pharma application approvals 2000-2008 — an excellent way to get an overview of the activities of the global pharmaceutical industry (all major manufacturers want an FDA approval to operate on the US market): The interactive original — in which you can put the cursor on a circle/dot to get the application frequence number — can be found here on IBM’s visualization website Many Eyes. The big circles (Merck, GlaxoSmithCline, Wyeth, Novartis etc.) are the big players, but there are hundreds of small ones in between (FDA also approves me... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2227209 Sun, 01 Mar 2009 08:00:14 +0100 2227209 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2222566&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F28%2Fcfp-drugs-and-chronic-illness-manchester-27-28-november-2009%2F Pharmaceutical drugs — especially late 20th century drugs — is a pretty challenging topic for medical museums because of the limited variety of material artefacts available for display. Vials, capsules, tablets, bottles, cartons and prescriptions look much the same; nor are they among the most evocative kinds of artefacts. Curators have to work hard to compensate for the lack of ‘innate’ presence effects in most objects related to pharmaceutical drugs. It’s not impossible, of course. Images can do the trick, and so can the pills themselves, if arranged in an innovative way. The ‘Cradle to Grave’ installation in British Museum’s Wellcome Gallery was a revelation when it was first shown in 2003 because it blew new life int... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2222566 Sat, 28 Feb 2009 12:34:27 +0100 2222566 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2222567&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F27%2Fexhibition-on-the-history-of-protein-research-call-for-artefacts%2F We are currently preparing a small exhibit on the culture and history of proteins and protein research, which is planned to open Friday 4 september in connection with the official opening of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research. The aim of the exhibition — which shall be placed in the main hall of the Faculty of Health Sciences’s Panum building on U Copenhagen North Campus (right at the entrance to the new eco-friendly and health-promoting canteen) — is to give a historical and cultural perspective on the current focus on proteins in biomedicine and biotechnology. We want to create an object-rich exhbition, and therefore we would like to get in contact with laboratory and clinical scientists on the Øresund area who may provide us with ob... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2222567 Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:15:42 +0100 2222567 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2206765&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F23%2Fhistory-of-medicine-on-video-training-session-and-workshop%2F Historians of medicine are grudgingly beginning to acknowledge the changing media habits in the population — that is, why read a book or a journal article when you can see a streaming video on the web instead? To prepare the scholarly community for the new media age, the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL is organizing a workshop on ’History of Medicine in Motion’, Tuesday 26 May 2009: The internet is rapidly transforming the boundaries of what is considered serious scholarly material, and allowing for a broader dissemination of findings than has hitherto been possible in history. The increased video saturation among new generation of students has been both a cause for alarm and excitement among academics as they note the decreased attenti... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2206765 Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:03:44 +0100 2206765 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2205036&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F22%2Frete%2F For some reason I have until recently been unaware of rete, a mailing list for curators, historians, students, collectors, dealers, etc, interested in the history of scientific instruments. The archives (from June 2003 onwards) are available online. The list owner (the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford) will not accept messages for commercial purposes like announcing instruments for sale, etc., but otherwise all messages for academic and museum purposes are welcome. To join, send a blank message to rete-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk. (thanks to Gustav for the tip) (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2205036 Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:02:01 +0100 2205036 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2205038&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F21%2F20th-century-history-of-biomedicine-at-ucl%2F Tilli Tansey — historian of contemporary medicine, a specialist in oral history, and the prime mover behind the famous Wellcome Witness Seminar series — will give her inaugural lecture as newly appointed professor at UCL on Monday 9 March 2009 @ 6.30 pm (Ambrose Fleming Lecture Theatre, London). The lecture is titled ’Models and Mechanisms: Aspects of Biomedicine at UCL in the Twentieth Century’ and will be followed by a reception in the Roberts Foyer. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2205038 Sat, 21 Feb 2009 08:00:31 +0100 2205038 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2200567&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F20%2Fbest-museum-exhibition-involving-medical-technology-and-medical-engineering%2F Just received a reminder about nominations for this year’s Dibner Award for Excellence in Museum Exhibits. The award was established in 1985 to recognize excellence in museums and museum exhibits that interpret the history of technology, industry, and engineering to the general public. The jury pays special attention to good design and production, of course, but also to whether the exhibition raises pertinent historical issues: “Artifacts and images should be used in a manner that interests, teaches, and stimulates both the general public and historians”. Deadline for nominations is 1 April; then the award committee choses a shortlist of finalists, the exhibition is reviewed on site, and finally the lucky winner gets a plaque and up to $1,000 to cover expenses for ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2200567 Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:00:32 +0100 2200567 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2200568&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F19%2Fsmallpox-virus-glass-sculpture-the-problem-of-use-of-pseudocolours-in-public-engagement-with-science%2F Apropos Colin Rennie’s glass sculpture of ATP synthase: visual artist Luke Jerram and glassblower Brian Jones have created these two non-coloured glass sculptures of the smallpox virus. The artwork is based on a number of scientific representations of the virus, and is made in consultation with virologist Andrew Davidson at the University of Bristol. (top right image from here, below from here) Luke Jerram’s artwork coincides with the 30th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, which was once one of the most dreaded epidemic diseases but which is now an ‘extinct’ species (except for some live virus strains in ‘virological gardens’). There is a more interesting aspect to these sculptures than mere memorialization, however. Luke, who d... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2200568 Thu, 19 Feb 2009 07:00:40 +0100 2200568 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2182578&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F13%2Fbiomedical-memoirs%2F Although I don’t like Twitter, I must admit that it is an interesting ego-document genre. A written trace of daily life — a publicly available diary, easily written, easily forgotten. Which made me think about the memoir genre, which is more difficult to write and less easily forgotten. Gore Vidal defined memoir as a story of “how one remembers one’s own life” in contrast to autobiography, which is “history, requiring research, dates, facts double-checked” (from his own memoir, Palimpsest, 1995). Memoirs loomed large in 19th and early 20th century libraries and book stores. Then they almost disappeared. But now, after decades of oblivion, the memoir is an increasingly popular genre again. There are all kinds of memoirs, of course, but this ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2182578 Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:26:10 +0100 2182578 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2177521&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F11%2Fthe-collective-biomedical-memory%2F is notoriously short. It resides mainly in daily anecdotes and small stories provided by the older members of the laboratory/clinic. You acquire snippets of the past in the coffee breaks or in the bar after working hours, through the introductory chapters of standard textbooks and anthologies, or by reading the memoirs of biomedical celebrities (like Craig Venter). You collect fragments that slowly coalesce in your mind as a more or less vague narrative about the past. The chances are high that most biomedical scientists are creating rather similar versions of a fairly standardized historical narrative. The ‘truth’ about the historical past is a strong social construct (much more social than scientific constructs, in spite of what many science studies peo... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2177521 Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:06:16 +0100 2177521 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2169818&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F02%2F09%2Fa-medical-revolution%2F I’ve always been skeptical of claims to revolutions in science and technology. Thomas Kuhn actually made a great disservice to historical awareness among scientists and to science communication with his 1962 bestseller The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Every now and then a new finding is described as a ‘revolution’ in science, technology or medicine — despite the fact that it it almost always more of the same, rather than revolutionary. Therefore I don’t like the title of the two-part video ‘Medical Revolution’ — about personalized medicine — which was awarded with two gold medals at the New York Festivals’ International Film & Video Awards 2008. ‘Medical Revolution — From Molecule to Medicine&#8217... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2169818 Mon, 09 Feb 2009 07:00:41 +0100 2169818 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2147569&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F30%2Fmedical-knowledge-and-medical-practice-in-the-20th-century%2F The Nordic Network of Medical History (in which Medical Museion is a partner) is organising a workshop in Oslo, 4-6 November 2009 on the theme ’Medical knowledge and medical practice in the 20th century’. The workshop  — which is primarily intended for scholars from the Nordic countries — is about the interconnectedness of knowledge, practice and institutions, more specifically “the circulation of knowledge between medical science and medical practice, with a particular focus on an important aspect of medicine in the 20th century, medical technology”: Medicine in the 20th century has both been subject to and itself caused a multiplicity of changes in what it means to be human. Be it diagnostics or therapy, computer tomography or organ replacement... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2147569 Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:57:06 +0100 2147569 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2137586&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F27%2Fpreannouncement-for-artefacts-meeting-at-science-museum-in-september%2F I have written about the Artefacts meeting series before (here, here and here). The 14th meeting will be hosted by Science Museum in London on 20-22 September 2009. The topic will be “The relations of science and technology as portrayed in museums”. Reserve the dates. Deadline will be around 1 April, but we’ll be back with a more formal and detailed announcement. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2137586 Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:26:18 +0100 2137586 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2131328&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F24%2Fphillip-warnells-current-artresearch-work-at-medical-museion%2F Artist Phillip Warnell (see earlier posts about his movie ‘The Girl With X-Ray Eyes’ and his pill camera installation) is just now visiting Medical Museion, where he is researching possibilities for a number of visually and conceptually driven projects. Firstly, Phillip is guest-editing an issue of The Performance Research Journal on the theme ‘Transplantations’ (see more here). As well as inviting contributions from an interdisciplinary group of academics, artists, biomedical researchers etc, the plan is to have a photo-editorial series of inserts, with images corresponding to broad notions of transplantation. Phillip is therefore working with Medical Museion’s collections on visual research forms, sourcing material that can be appropriate for pub... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2131328 Sat, 24 Jan 2009 20:49:59 +0100 2131328 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2110628&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F16%2Four-new-muscle-man%2F To satisfy those of our readers (such as our colleagues at Street Anatomy) who are hungry for more classical, anatomical stuff, we’re making this short interruption in the steady flow of contemporary biomedicine-on-display material. Today we acquired a new anatomy-related art object — a plaster of Paris copy of a full-sized male ecorché (representing a flogged muscle man), originally made in 1869 by the Danish sculpturer Theobald Stein (1829-1901) and later cast in bronze. Placed in the entrance hall of Medical Museion, the muscle man is not only a major attraction in itself — it also symbolizes our interest in connecting art and medicine in all possible ways, not only the contemporary art-biomedicine arena, but also in its classical (or in this case neo-neocla... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2110628 Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:18:53 +0100 2110628 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2107743&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F15%2Freflections-on-science-and-medical-collections-in-universities%2F I’ve already mentioned the launch of the new University Museums and Collections Journal. The first issue has just been released online — there are two articles of potential interest for reflecting medical museums: In one of them, Sébastien Soubiran asks “What makes scientific communities think the preservation of their heritage is important?”, and answers the question through a historical analysis of the various role that were conferred to university collections and museums within the University Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg for the last thirty years. In the other, “‘The Sound of Silver’: Collaborating art, science and technology at Queen’s University, Belfast”, Karen Brown presents an interesting exhibition approach, viz., an exhibition of s... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2107743 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:15:00 +0100 2107743 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2107744&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F15%2Fthe-design4science-poster%2F Today, the poster for Design4Science got in place in our external showcases. It’s made by the exhibition designer, Shirley Wheeler (see earlier posts). If you are interested in buying a poster, please write to our outreach officer, Bente Vinge Pedersen (bvpn[atsigntoavoidawfulspamrobots]sund.ku.dk). (more photos here)  (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2107744 Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:58:17 +0100 2107744 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2097903&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F12%2Fdesign4science-and-medical-museion%2F Our next temporary exhibition is on its way. Today Shirley Wheeler arrived with her team from Sunderland (UK) to set up Design4Science, which will open next Tuesday. It’s an exhbition about the interface between design and science, more precisely how design has interacted with molecular biology in the last 50 years. How the invisible biomolecular world has been represented, modelled and visualized in co-operation with artists and designers. And, vice versa, how designers and artists have been inspired by research in molecular biology. Design4Science will be on display in our temporary exhibition venue in Bredgade, Copenhagen, until 12 April. Stay tuned — Bente will follow Shirley and her team while they install during this week and the following weekend. Here are some of Be... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2097903 Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:54:33 +0100 2097903 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2094823&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F10%2Fhistory-of-the-neurosciences%2F The 14th annual meeting of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) will be held in Charleston, South Carolina, 16-20 June 2009. The ISHN encourages contributions about “all of the history of all of the neurosciences, including basic and clinical specialties, ancient and non-Western topics, technical advances, and broad social and cultural aspects”. Send abstracts to Sherry Ginn, sginn@carolina.rr.com, before 28 February. For details, see here.   (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2094823 Sat, 10 Jan 2009 09:00:50 +0100 2094823 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2092575&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F09%2Fthe-incomplete-child-an-exhibition-about-congenital-deformities-in-science-art-and-society%2F The Steno Museum for the history of science and medicine at Aarhus University has produced some very interesting temporary exhibitions over the past few years (see fx here). Their latest contribution deals with congenital deformities in children, and takes an historical as well as an artistic approach to the challenge of culturally accomodating the issue of birth defects. Here is what Morten A. Skydsgaard, head curator of the exhibition, writes about the show: “Congenital deformities have always fascinated and disgusted us - and calls for further explanation. The exhibition ”The incomplete child”, at the Steno Museum, The Danish Museum for the History of Science, shows how science, art and society have viewed children with congenital deformities through history. Mythical figures... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2092575 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:17:08 +0100 2092575 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2074100&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2009%2F01%2F01%2Fbecoming-surprised-instead-of-googling-in-advance%2F Mike Rhode’s post (on A Repository) about a nice little medical exhibit in the local history museum in Cookeville, Tennessee (see his many pictures here) reminds me about how many local museums around the world that have medical collections. Mike’s post also makes me think about the kind of dilemma that the digital information society afflicts upon us. On the one hand, it would be great to have online access to all medical collections and museums around the world, with links, of course, to Google Maps, loads of visitors’ pictures on Flickr and movies on YouTube, etc.. So that when I’m travelling I’m always prepared in advance for what there is to see. But on the other hand, I would hate not to be able to be genuinely surprised now and then (like... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2074100 Thu, 01 Jan 2009 16:30:12 +0100 2074100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2035617&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F12%2F14%2Fpostgrad-course-on-the-recent-history-of-power-policies-and-health%2F The recently founded Nordic Network of Medical History (chaired by Astri Andresen in Bergen) is organising a three-day postgrad course on “Power, policies and health” (3 ects points), 11-14 May 2009, at the University of Copenhagen. The aim is to present some theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of power and policies in the field of health, namely power studies (how to study the exercise of power and the processes of problematisation), relations between research and policymaking (when and how does research and policymaking interact), the anthropology of policy (analyses of how policy discourses ‘work’). Two methodological and design approaches are presented oral history as a means to study policy processes and comparative studies of health policies. Foc... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2035617 Sun, 14 Dec 2008 16:22:56 +0100 2035617 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2035618&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F12%2F13%2Fthe-history-of-biomedicinebiotech-and-economic-policy%2F Two quotes from yesterday’s online media caught my interest as a historian of contemporary biomedicine: First from an interview in yesterday’s Nature online with former Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Elias Zerhouni: The economic stimulus package is $500 billion, with $1 billion for science. It’s outrageous. This is the future of our country. So now we’re subsidizing the industries of the past at the expense of investments in the industries of the future. It’s almost an insult, frankly. Second from a post on yesterday’s Medgadget about a European Union (EU) funded project that aims to develop a microchip that can do DNA analysis for clinical applications: This is one of the examples of pan-European cooperation that we constantly see... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2035618 Sat, 13 Dec 2008 10:01:01 +0100 2035618 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2027035&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F12%2F10%2Fglobal-developments-and-local-specificities-in-the-history-of-medicine-and-health%2F The European Association for the History of Medicine and Health (EAHMH) invites submissions for its bi-annual meeting in Heidelberg, 3-6 September 2009. The general theme of the meeting — “Global Developments and Local Specificities in the History of Medicine and Health” — includes issues like: the impact of globalisation processes (political, economic, means of communication etc.) on local ideas and practices in medicine the spread of local medical ideas, practices, as well as materials (remedies, instruments, etc.) to broader national and international contexts (”travelling knowledge”) processes such as the hybridisation of “local” and “global” (or more hegemonic) concepts or practices the invention of (supposed) local tradi... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2027035 Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:48:03 +0100 2027035 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2027036&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F12%2F09%2Ffrom-wax-moulages-to-dough-moulages%2F Like so many others, I’m intrigued by a YouTube movie that shows Thai artist Kittiwat Unarrom’s body bakery shop (see the movie below). Mr. Unarrom uses ordinary baking dough (plus cashew nuts, chocolate and raisins) to make bread in the shape of body parts. It’s all perfectly edible (well, I guess cannibals would find real body-parts perfectly edible too :-) Mr. Unarrom is said to have been inspired by reading anatomy books and visiting pathology museums. What nobody seems to have suggested, however, is that he may have also been inspired by watching or reading about wax moulages. Because what Mr. Unarrom is doing with dough is what dermatologists and artists a century ago were doing with wax. Medical wax moulages were used as documentation and teaching ai... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2027036 Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:50:32 +0100 2027036 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2017594&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F12%2F06%2Fa-group-of-wellcome-library-staff-members%2F have started a blog with “news items, titbits, interesting facts and features, progress reports, and much much more”, and they are of course hoping that theirs will become “the new place to see and be seen” :-). The initiative isn’t mentioned on Wellcome Library’s official website (and they don’t provide any ‘About’ info on the blog) so it’s probably an unofficial staff initiative. Looks promising: e.g., they bring useful info about Wellcome Images etc. May become a good source for news about medical historical London; thus it’s on my Google Reader RSS feed list now. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2017594 Sat, 06 Dec 2008 18:21:16 +0100 2017594 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1984867&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F11%2F25%2Fhistory-of-medicine-phd-scholarships-in-london-2009-2011%2F The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London (UCL) have just announced a number of 3 year scholarships for the their M.Phil./Ph.D. programme, beginning in September 2009. The scholarships are open to students both from within and outside EU. You can get more info from the centre’s graduate tutor, Helga Satzinger, h.satzinger@ucl.ac.uk, or from Adam Wilkinson, a.wilkinson@ucl.ac.uk. And of course on the centre’s website. Information about UCL’s Graduate School can be found at http://www.grad.ucl.ac.uk/ Applications forms must be submitted online with the UCL Graduate School here, not later than 12 January 2009. Interviews with shortlisted candidates in early February. (Source: Biomedicine on Display) Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1984867 Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:09:48 +0100 1984867 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1975093&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F11%2F20%2Fmaking-visible-embryos-and-the-art-of-conservation%2F The recently launched online exhibition “Making Visible Embryos“, curated by Tatjana Buklijas and Nick Hopwood, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, and funded by the Wellcome Trust, offers a fascinating tour through a paradigmatic, but also highly controversial, aspect of the history of medicine: the engagement with and displaying of human embryos. The exhibition invites visitors to move thematically through the development of different aspects of how embryos have been depicted through time. We learn about how research into embryology gradually moves from the secrecy of the laboratory to the public sphere in connection with debates about human development, birth control, and reproductive technologies like IVF. The curators also inform us o... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1975093 Thu, 20 Nov 2008 11:49:16 +0100 1975093 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1963958&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F11%2F17%2Fcurating-medical-artifacts-with-an-eye-to-the-future%2F The acquisition of medical museum artifacts is usually seen as a job for specialists (curators) with historical training. To curate a collected artifact for later use in exhibitions, you are supposed to know where it came from, how it was produced and used, what meanings were attributed to it, what role it played in medical practice, how it related to other things, and so forth. In other words, curating museum artifacts is, as a rule, always already a historical practice. The future doesn’t seem to be of any immediate interest for the curator. Yet the future creeps into the equation, whether the curator wants it or not. When curators handle artifacts from the past, the future of these past times is an integral part of the curatorial practice. The description of, say, ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1963958 Mon, 17 Nov 2008 07:00:01 +0100 1963958 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1947182&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F11%2F10%2Fbaltic-nordic-network-for-medical-museums%2F Last week, ten representatives of the major medical historical collections and museums in the Nordic and Baltic countries — i.e., Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden — gathered for a two-day meeting in Uppsala, Sweden, with three aims in mind: to create a network between individuals and institutions in the Baltic-Nordic region about the development of medical and medical history museums. to identify important issues of common interest, like joint exhibitions, teaching programmes, acquisition projects, joint research projects, fund-raising, new museum development plans, etc. to discuss the best ways of strengthening the cooperation between Baltic-Nordic medical and medical history museums, university programmes for the history of med... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1947182 Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:49 +0100 1947182 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1945225&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F11%2F08%2Fuseful-list-of-medical-history-museums-worldwide%2F Travellers who would like to visit local medical history museums may find the list below useful. The list — which is taken from the website of the German Central Medical Library (Deutschen Zentralbibliothek für Medizin) — begins with German museums followed by museums in other countries, including a few web-based virtual museums. For example, I didn’t know there is a Virtual Toilet Paper Museum (not precisely a medical museum, except that it’s got something to do with public health, I guess)! Unfortunately the list is non-discriminative, i.e., it lists all kinds of museums, whether big or small, good or bad, without any evaluation (typical librarian style). See the original here. Germany: Alfeld/Leine  Schnarch-Museum Alfeld Andernach  Heilkunde-M... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1945225 Sat, 08 Nov 2008 22:25:50 +0100 1945225 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1939093&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F11%2F07%2Fthe-recent-history-of-personal-genome-service-next-week-is-decodemes-and-23andmes-1st-year-birthdays%2F It’s only one year ago that the first commercial personal genome services became available to ordinary customers, thus initiating what might become a new major postgenomic health industry. deCODEme was launched on 16 November, 2007, and 23andMe three days later. As Attila Csordás points out, the media (and blog) coverage of 23andMe has been far more intense than that of deCODEme. Why? The products are basically similar, so it has probably more to do with their public image. For example, deCODEme has a mainstram commercial-looking website, while 23andMe looks like something that came out of a children’s toy store. It may also have something to do with different personal ‘likability’ factors of the front figures of the two companies (Anne Wojcicki and ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1939093 Fri, 07 Nov 2008 10:00:36 +0100 1939093 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1939094&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F11%2F06%2Fhistory-of-robotics-in-medicine-and-otherwise%2F The number of conferences of potential interest for medical museologists and historians of contemporary medicine is increasing. Take, for example, the annual conference of the German Society for the History of Technology that will be held at the Hochschule für Gestaltung, Offenbach am Main (close to Frankfurt aM), 22-24 May 2009 — on the theme of the history of robotics. “If ‘the atom’ and then ‘the gene’ were symbols of the 20th century, then ‘the robot’ is that of the 21st century”, say the organizers. (Especially nanorobots, I guess.) The aim of the meeting is to discuss the historiography of robots and robotics and analyze presentations of robots in museums and exhibits. In science fiction, visions of the future were and a... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1939094 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 08:00:13 +0100 1939094 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1927816&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F11%2F03%2Fusing-imaging-technology-to-buy-shoes-the-schucoscop%2F Imaging technology in museums is not just about sublime high-tech artefacts to be admired by the esoteric few. As Bente points out on our Danish parallel blog, one of our most popular imaging artefacts is a shoe-fitting fluoroscope (a “Schucoskop”), on display in our x-ray study collection. The ‘Pedoskop’ as it was called in German was quite common in shoe stores in Europe and North America from the 1920s to the 1960’s. Customers stuck their feet (with shoes on) into the slot below and could then see an x-ray image on a fluoroscent screen from above. Many of our elderly visitors clearly remember having used such pedoscopes in Copenhagen shoe stores in the 1950s and 1960s. A nice evocative object which releases a lot of memories of times past. The text ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1927816 Mon, 03 Nov 2008 08:43:28 +0100 1927816 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1901502&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F22%2Fphilosophy-of-history-vs-museum-tangibles-and-specifics%2F In her short obituary of George E. Palade — who was the first to identify what was later called ribosomes (thus a shared Nobel prize in 1974) — Andrea Gawrylewski, staff writer at The Scientist, refers in passing to something that Palade wrote in his autobiographical essay: My father had hoped I was going to study philosophy at the University, like himself, but I preferred to deal with tangibles and specifics, and - influenced by relatives much closer to my age than he was - I entered the School of Medicine of the University of Bucharest (Romania) in 1930. Interesting opposition between philosophy and medical science as dealing with ‘tangibles’ and ’specifics’. Wonder if this is valid for historians too? Is there an opposition between being inte... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1901502 Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:00:19 +0100 1901502 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1894957&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F22%2Fthe-history-of-evidence-based-medicine%2F The emergence of evidence-based medicine is one of the most interesting issues in the history of contemporary medical history. Wish I were in Stockholm on Monday 3 November when Ingemar Bohlin from the STS Section at the University of Gothenburg will speak about evidence-based decision making in a science-based society and the origin, distribution and limits of the ‘evidence movement’ in an afternoon seminar at the Nobel Museum. Ingemar will reconstruct four strands of historical development that together led to current evidence-based medicine, and describe the relation between them in order to throw light on procedures for contemporary knowledge production. Write to bokning@nobel.se if you want to participate; a background text is available. More info from Paul Sj�... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1894957 Wed, 22 Oct 2008 12:32:31 +0100 1894957 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1889008&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F20%2Fnlms-public-health-exhibition-against-the-odds-making-a-difference-in-global-health%2F Some time ago, the National Library of Medicine opened a new exhibition called ’Against the Odds: Making a Difference in Global Health’ in the library foyer on NIH campus, Bethesda. Featured stories include the early years of the AIDS epidemic in the US, the Chinese barefoot doctor movement, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and the WHO smallpox eradication program. I haven’t seen the physical exhibition, only the web version. Admittedly, public health is probably one of the most difficult topics for exhibitions (physical or web-based). But given NLM’s huge economic ressources, one could expect something much better. For example, take a look at the online games on the Online Activities & Resources page. If you haven’t seen a late-1... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1889008 Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:16:34 +0100 1889008 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1870697&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F13%2Fcollecting-medical-artefacts-as-a-public-private-enterprise%2F During the medical garbage collecting day in late May, we brought in a number of wonderful and interesting medical artefacts to our collections, including this plastic mannequin from the Department of Odontology (it’s Camilla to the left). Now Vanessa tells us that Steve Erenburg (a.k.a. radio-guy), a New York based artefact dealer, has this dental mennequin called Dentman — an aluminum head sittoing on a cast iron lab stand — for sale for $750! Those $750 would have financed the whole medical garbage collection day! Which gives me an idea. The Ministry of Science in this country wants its universities to engage more in private enterprise. So maybe we should begin to think in terms of collecting medical items for sale! Actually, as a university museum under ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1870697 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 06:16:31 +0100 1870697 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1862748&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F09%2Fmedical-theme-restaurant-hospitalis-in-riga-latvia%2F A couple of weeks ago we asked for a guide to restaurants and bars with medical motifs. Øystein Horgmo has kindly sent us an article in the Norwegian daily Dagbladet about a new theme restaurant in Riga, Latvia, owned by medical doctors, called Hospitalis, with a pronounced medical motif. Says my new favourite guide to Latvian culture, ‘Fucking Latvia: alternative guide to Latvia’: It is a must-see place if you like gore things. The restaurant looks like a medicine cabinet, while you are treated as a patient and taken good care by the long-legged waitresses in nurses uniforms. The food is served in flasks and operating-room’s dishes and isn’t that cheap (7 and more lats per meal), but this is a bizarre experience that is worth breaking the bank. Besides, the place is ow... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1862748 Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:47:05 +0100 1862748 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1862749&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F08%2Fa-true-biomedicine-on-display-nobel-prize%2F ‘An unbelievably romantic prize with beautiful colours’ [’ett otroligt romantiskt pris med vackra färger’] — that’s how an inorganic chemist at the University of Gothenburg characterizes today’s news about the Nobel prize in chemistry. I’m not sure I understand what he means by ’romantic’. I would rather call it a ‘medical’ prize in disguise, like most chemical Nobel prizes these days. Because the green fluoresent protein (GFP) and other GFP-like proteins in a variety of fluorescent colours are widely used in basic and clinical medical research. (glial cells expressing GFP among red neurons: credit: RICCARDO CASSIANI-INGONI / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY) And the colours are beautiful indeed. They’ve been a s... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1862749 Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:21:05 +0100 1862749 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1859510&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F08%2Fcan-historians-trust-scientists-as-sources-for-autobiographical-stories%2F A recent announcement for a lecture by Tim Hunt, joint winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, at the Royal Institution of Great Britain tomorrow, Thursday 9 October, reminded me of the problems with using scientists as sources for biographical stories. Tim Hunt will be talking about the inspirations behind his life in science. Says the announcement: It was in his weekly science lesson at the Dragon School near Oxford that Tim grew to find biology an easy subject, and from then on he felt he never really had to make any more career decisions. When he was 14, Tim moved to another school where science played a much larger role in the curriculum. He loved Chemistry in particular, and the class were allowed considerable freedom, on more than one occasion started fires fr... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1859510 Wed, 08 Oct 2008 08:00:30 +0100 1859510 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1856050&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F07%2Fhas-the-emergence-of-the-life-sciences-reconfigured-c-p-snows-two-cultures-thesis%2F Next year is 50 years since C. P. Snow delivered his famous lecture ‘The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution’, suggesting that as cultured citizens we need to know as much about the second law of thermodynamics as the plays of Shakespeare. To celebrate this event, and to raise the question whether Snow’s notion has any relevance today, Science Museum and Tate Modern are organizing a two-day event on the theme ‘Art and Science Now: The Two Cultures in Question’: In a world of increasing disciplinary specialisation in which there has been exponential growth of sub-disciplines in both science and the humanities, it will also ask whether the distinctions between and indeed within the two cultures might have become further entrenched. The most fundamental quest... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1856050 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:19:23 +0100 1856050 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1856051&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F06%2Fwhy-didnt-the-nobel-committee-give-the-prize-to-gallo%2F Today’s most interesting medical history news is not that Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier have been awarded half of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for ”their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus”. The interesting news is that Robert Gallo doesn’t share the prize, and that he is not even mentioned in the press release (only in the technical appendix). In hindsight, both scientists and historians probably agree that the French group made the actual discovery of the virus which was later named HIV. Yet, Gallo and his group at NIH played a significant role both before and after the actual discovery, especially in determing the causative role of HIV for the development of AIDS. Asked about his reaction to the news, Gall... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1856051 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:43:06 +0100 1856051 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1853599&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F10%2F06%2Fmoving-beyond-recognition-how-to-make-sense-of-recent-medical-artefacts%2F Camilla’s post about Robert Wilson’s recent lecture at Stanford reminded me of David Pantalony’s essay in the July issue of the History of Science Society Newsletter: Why does a control panel for a computer from 1950 attract several viewers in the architecture and design galleries of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, while similar objects rest unnoticed in storage rooms and science museums around the world? Referring to Joshua Taylor’s Learning to Look (1981), David reminds us that we too often stop considering objects as soon as we have recognized them. Putting them in other surroundings (like the control panel in MOMA), however, makes it easier to reconsider them. Thus, the main challenge with recent technological artifacts, David points ... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1853599 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 06:45:15 +0100 1853599 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1833190&cid=t_92659_107_f&fid=34860&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.corporeality.net%2Fmuseion%2F2008%2F09%2F27%2Fwriting-the-history-of-karolinska-institute-1810-2010%2F Following two succesful earlier meetings (in Stockholm in 2006 and in Gothenburg 2007), the Swedish medical history network organizes its third conference, again in Stockholm, on Thursday 29 January 2009. The main item on the meeting agenda is the planned project for writing the history of the Karolinska Institute, founded in 1810, and today one of the world’s leading medical research universities. As the project involves up to ten Swedish medical historians in 2008 and 2009, it will probably dominate the meeting, but the organizers promise that there will be plenty of time for presentation of other current research projects as well. Conference language is Swedish, but you don’t need a Swedish passport to attend. For inquiries, contact Roger Qvarsell, roger.qvarsell... Biomedicine on Display blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1833190 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 08:00:49 +0100 1833190