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Throughout history, medics and campaigners have tried to stamp out masturbation – but is modern science transforming its reputation?

Some surprising occupations pose hidden risks to dental health. Could your ivories be in particular peril?

Blood. Phlegm. Black bile. Yellow bile. The theory of the four humours informed many of Shakespeare's best-known characters, including the phlegmatic Falstaff.

This British Sign Language video is the latest interpretation of an unique 18th-century Nepali manuscript about Ayurvedic medicine.

We love our festive pine cones and poinsettias, but what else are we inviting in with them?

Odd diets aren’t just for January. Here are some examples that go back way further than New Year’s Day.

In honour of the animal’s heroic efforts, here are some favourites from our collection.

Period pains are nothing new. Nor are innovative suggestions for how to deal with them.

How accurately can we imagine the future? These past prognostications suggest that we cannot escape the pull of our own time and its biases.

In the plague-ravaged London of 1665, could perfume really save your life?

Now one of the most popular forms of exercise, the health-giving properties of swimming have not always been recognised. Dive into a gallery that charts the course from water as site of danger to a space of health.

Discover how self-published zines have been used to share individual expriences of disability and disabled identity.

This exhibition explores humanity’s vital connection with freshwater – an essential source of life and pillar of good health for people and planet.

In pre-internet days, phone boxes became a patchwork of ‘tart cards’ offering sexual services. Find out about the clandestine world they hint at.

There’s something unexpectedly flirtatious and flamboyant about the smart young people featured in these French postcards.

Artist Beth Hopkins explains how she used her experience of researching the Adamson Collection to create an embroidered wall hanging.

With few sources of effective help available when treating an injured patient, the medieval physician could instead stage a healing ceremony using a practical how-to guide he carried with him.

Is childbirth an athletic feat? Kathleen Vaughan certainly thought so, developing the first modern exercise class for women in pregnancy.

Fish, lute players and defaced demons: marginal doodles in some of Europe’s first printed books provide a tantalising glimpse into the late-medieval mind.

Academics on hallucinogenics, kids sniffing glue, and Scientologists recruiting drug users keen to kick the habit. Delve into Wellcome’s recently acquired DrugScope archive.