Wellcome Collection events

To coincide with the exhibition, a lively programme of discussions, debates and performances will allow visitors to engage in dialogue about issues from race to the National DNA Database and animal behaviour.

Secret Lives

Saturday 23 January, 15.00-16.30 Hear about the extraordinary stories of people who have given up their old identities and taken on new ones. In a night of detection, deliberation and exposure, we'll examine examples from history and unpick the psychological impacts of leading a secret life.
Blurring Boundaries

Thursday 28 January, 19.00-20.30 Differences in race may be obvious to the eye but is there any scientific basis underlying skin colour? Contemporary science is split on this complex question. The use of 'race' in science is loaded with a dangerous past so should we confine it to the history books?
The National DNA Database on Trial

Thursday 4 February, 19.00-20.30 The UK has the largest forensic database in the world, with details of more than 5 million people. The size of the database and the length of time a sample can be held for are controversial and under review following a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights. Find out more about the science of the database and join its defence or attack.
China: Birth and belonging

Friday 26 February, 19.00-21.00 and Saturday 27 February, 10.30-17.00 In the West we have an egocentric sense of the self. China provides us with different social, philosophical and scientific perspectives. From the impact that the state has on an individual's identity to issues around stem cell research, over two days we'll explore Chinese ideas of birth and belonging through performance, talks and discussion.
Creature Collective

Thursday 18 March, 19.00-20.30 Many species have evolved strategies of collective behaviour where groups work together 'as one', and are capable of more than the sum of their parts. From social insects to flocking behaviour, meerkats to migrations, we'll explore the genetics underlying these feats.
Rewiring the Mind: Should we erase traumatic memories?

Thursday 25 March, 19.00-20.30 Scientists may soon be able to erase painful memories, offering a cure for phobias and stress disorders. But what might this mean for our identity and humanity - how far do our memories make us who we are?

Posted via email from DOGMEAT

Video: Why the good guys draw faster in a gunfight | Science | guardian.co.uk

via guardian.co.uk

Why the good guys always draw faster in a gunfight

Mock gunfights at the University of Birmingham prove that subconscious reactions are faster than deliberate, calculated actions

Posted via web from DOGMEAT

Video: Out on a limb | limbs andthings | guardian.co.uk

via guardian.co.uk

Posted via web from DOGMEAT

Secret Lives - Wellcome Collection

via wellcomecollection.org

Posted via web from DOGMEAT

Video: Man without memory

Video: Man without memory

In the Samuel Pepys room of Identity: Eight rooms, nine lives we have on display the extraordinary diaries of Clive Wearing, an accomplished musician who experienced a rare form of encephalitis, leaving him with severe anterograde amnesia - the inability to form new memories. In the diaries, he records his experience as a series of awakenings, often scoring through previous entries that he doesn’t remember writing.

Clive has been the subject of a number of documentaries that have each taken different approaches to discussing his condition. We've collected together those films available on YouYube: a clip from a BBC documentary and two longer films from a series called 'The Mind', which were filmed 13 years apart.

Man without a memory

This is a short segment from a BBC documentary called 'Time: Daytime' which explores how humans experience time. In this clip, the nature of Clive’s memory loss is examined, but we also see that his ability to play the piano is intact.
Life Without Memory: The Case of Clive Wearing, part 1a

In this older film, from 1985, we see Clive not long after he has developed his devastating amnesia. This film goes into more detail about Clive and his wife Deborah, with further information about the illness that caused his memory loss. It also shows his relationship with the diary as seen in the exhibition.
Life Without Memory: The Case of Clive Wearing, part 1b

This second part of 'Life Without Memory' shows Clive conducting a choir flawlessly, but also his convulsive reaction as he finishes the piece of music. His wife Deborah describes this as being the result of his musical safety net falling away as the music ends.
Clive Wearing: Living Without Memory, part 2a

From the same series as 'Life Without Memory', this revisits Clive Wearing 13 years later in 1998, at a time when his wife Deborah says he has begun to show some improvements. In this first section we see the house hospital in which now lives, and Deborah talks about his current condition.
Clive Wearing: Living Without Memory, part 2b

In this second part, we see Clive being evaluated by a neuropsychologist who later says that Clive is the most amnesiac patient she has ever seen, but also that his condition is about more than memory impairment. At the end of this section and the beginning of the next we see from scans the damage that has been done to Clive’s brain.
Clive Wearing: Living Without Memory, part 2c

This begins with more information on the brain damage that Clive has sustained. After about five minutes, the film returns to Deborah who talks about the types of memory that have been impaired in Clive, but also about the ways he has moved from a state of constant repetition to one in which he is able to hold more meaningful conversations.
Clive Wearing: Living Without Memory, part 2d

To conclude this film, we hear more from Deborah on the ways in which people around Clive have learned to be sensitive to his needs, and the way that Clive himself has begun to adapt.