Medicine and Biology

Netsuke inscribed with acupuncture meridians, Japanese, 18th-19th century

Brought to life

See thousands of fascinating and intriguing objects about the History of Medicine

Science meets medicine

From the mid-nineteenth century science contributes to diagnosis and treatment.

Marie Curie

Marie Curie and the history of radioactivity: find out about the extraordinary work of Marie Curie and her family.

Medicine as new technology

New science helps medicine identify and cure previously untreatable problems.

What is life?

Second World War ideas about codes and information help crack the structure of DNA.

World War One

Nations commit their entire populations and all their industries to the fight.

Living medical traditions

Across the world, many different medical traditions thrive, each one changing and developing in response to the shifting culture in which it is practiced.

Addiction

Defining and treating addiction is a modern problem. In the last century arguments have raged over whether addiction to alcohol, tobacco or drugs is a physical or mental condition and whether different substances create different classes of addicts.