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A fairly new (from August 2010) blog called Discard Studies explores the contemporary throw-away culture. One of their recent hot topics is plastic pollution of the oceans. All oceans, especially the North Pacific, contains millions of tons of discarded man-made plastic items. They are largely non-biodegradable, which means they will only disappear slowly through physical wear — which can take many […]

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, […]

We’re pretty proud of being the fourth most energetic contributor to Flickr and Twitter’s joint Picture a Museum Day event yesterday. The top contributor was Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam with 758 pics, and we were #4 with 197 contributions. See all of our 197 pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53284874@N02/sets/72157626284530510. The day was expertly planned and managed by our new social web officer, Daniel, […]

I ugens ‘Favourite Things’ film fortæller vores samlingsleder og konservator Ion Meyer en sand historie: I 1848 blev der på fødselsstiftelsen i København født to meget ualmindelige siamesiske tvillinger. Det var to piger sammenvokset i bækkenpartiet, såkaldte ischiopagi. Ved hjælp af en amme lykkedes det at holde pigerne i live i 11 dage, men man var fra starten […]

My old interest in biomedical identity, individuality and personality was stimulated by an opinion piece on Buddhism and the brain by physician David Weisman in last week’s online Seed. Weisman discusses the apparent similarities between some of Buddhism’s core ideas and the alleged findings of neurology and neuroscience with respect to the non-existence of a unified ‘self’. On this convergent view, the […]

Så er den næste kortfilm i serien ‘Favourite Things’ klar på youtube: Vores gæsteforsker Sven Erik Hansen, der er forhenværende overlæge, har valgt Albers-Schönbergs røntgenapparat fra begyndelsen af det 20. århundrede som sin yndlingsting. Det der især fascinerer ham, er maskinens underfundige strømsystem, der skulle omforme den tilførte jævnstrøm på 110 volt til de strømstød […]

The University of Copenhagen, and specifically the Faculty for Health Sciences, is in the midst of a huge scandal. The details of the case about wrongdoings of the fallen star brain researcher Milena Penkowa are too many (and juicy) to recount here, but suffice it to say that it has put more science in the […]

Høresalen (Auditoriet) i det gamle Kongelige Kirurgiske Akademi er vores kreative udstillingsudvikler Bente Vinge Pedersens yndlingsting. Salen er en overraskelse, et uforudset pragtrum, der pludselig udfolder sig for den besøgende, efter de skæve trapper og smalle gange der leder op til det fra museumsindgangen. Det der gør rummet specielt, er den måde det kommer til live på, […]

Øjemodellen fra 1750’erne er et udsøgt stykke håndværk, men viser tydelige tegn på slid, da den har været brugt til undervisning. For vores konservator Nanna Gerdes er det altid et dilemma, hvor meget man skal rense og restaurere en genstand. Det er ofte netop slidmærkerne og revnerne, der fortæller os noget om genstandens ‘liv’, og om hvordan den har […]

Very interesting stuff for our forthcoming exhibition on obesity — the planned special issue on the materiality of fat edited by Christopher E. Forth at the University of Kansas for the Journal of Material Culture in 2012. “The Materiality of Fat” is inspired – but in no way limited – by the problem of “obesity” as the […]

I’ve spent some time last week watching, in fascination, Buenos Aires-based photographer Irina Werning’s “Back to the future”, a series of juxtapositions of images of individuals at different ages. She finds people who have portraits of themselves as a young child (not very difficult, most of us have) and then re-enacts the portrait with a contemporary version of the same person placed in […]

A lot of people on Facebook have recently been excited about art critic and historian James Elkins’ analysis, in a recent Huffington Post chronicle (“Exploring Famous Unfinished Paintings in Google Art Project”), of what it means to ‘finish’ an artwork. It’s a well-written and beautifully illustrated piece, but it’s not unproblematic if you think in terms of other creative genres than art. […]