Author: Danny Rees

Recently re-discovered in a corner of the storage rooms was a modest, thin volume that revealed the economic hope of the future in earlier times, when faith was placed in one man. It was none other than David Lloyd George,… Continue reading

Where do medical web sites go when they die? Well, provided they have granted the Wellcome Library permission, we can ‘freeze’ them in the UK Web Archivewhere they can be forever young and accessible. The Wellcome Library is currently busy… Continue reading

Hot on the heels of this week’s Classic Rock Awards in London comes the revelation that surgeons use music to promote an atmosphere of calm during operations, including songs by the Eagles (truly ‘Classic’) and David Bowie. This was never… Continue reading

This Saturday, 2nd October, the library will feature a new Insight talk – London Faces – to coincide with Story of London events. Learn how Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and James Gillray made their own contributions to the fascinating history… Continue reading

  MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans taken of the head, create a magnetic field 30,000 times stronger than that generated by the earth. In doing so, water molecules in the brain absorb or transmit radio waves which can then be… Continue reading

Passing under my nose in the Rare Materials Room this week was a fascinating tome by the Reverend Thomas Price, writing passionately in 1829 about Goths (not the pasty-faced variety clothed in black but the ancient tribe). Wrestling with the… Continue reading

On this day in 1890 Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide using a gun he had previously brandished at the doctor treating his increasingly difficult mental state – Paul Ferdinand Gachet. Gachet had encouraged Van Gogh to create an etching and… Continue reading

One of the more arresting photographs in the library’s collections shows a man undergoing electrical stimulation of his facial muscles to help understand the nature of expressions. Charles Darwin used the original photographs, made by Dr. Guillaume Duchenne, in his… Continue reading

Oh, to be in England in the summertime. Fans of the Chelsea Flower show and all things horticultural may want to see some ‘living history’. From the library, take a stroll to the nearest patch of grass – Gordon Square… Continue reading

How do you spot a liar? What features do aggressive hockey players have in common? Calling all seekers of the shady secrets of face-reading, this is your chance to delve into a centuries old world of knowledge known to its… Continue reading