Lunch with a Burn Surgeon
November 4, 2010 § 2 Comments

Color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of a meshed skin graft over a burn. Photo from the Wellcome Collection.
I’ve recently found the podcast treasure that is the Wellcome Collection’s Packed Lunch, a series of interviews with British scientists from different fields. Especially interesting is a podcast featuring burn surgeon Isabel Jones. « Read the rest of this entry »
Before a Live Studio Audience
August 31, 2010 § 1 Comment
In an effort to bring surgery back into the public domain, the Wellcome Collection in London arranged a Live Surgery event last year, broadcasting live open heart surgery to an audience of 200 lay people.
It’s interesting to hear people’s expectations and reactions in this short clip from the event. It reminds of the time when I showed the start of a prostatectomy video to my grandparents once. When I stopped it after a minute or so saying “So that’s what I do for a living”, they yelled “Don’t stop, we got to see how it ends!”.
Surgery sure is intriguing.
Exquisite Bodies
September 1, 2009 § Leave a comment
The Wellcome Collection in London is hosting an exhibition of 19th-century anatomical wax models, entitled “Exquisite Bodies” from July 30th to October 18th (photo credit). In Victorian Britain, the demand for cadavers for dissection was very high, but the supply was low. One solution was to make anatomical wax models to teach anatomy. A lot of these models also found their way into museums, teaching the public about reproduction and contagious diseases.
There’s a lot to explore on the exhibition’s website: image galleries with some of the most prominent items, an interactive anatomical Venus and videos on these Victorian wax wenches.
Also check out the Guardian’s image gallery and an audio slideshow from BBC News.