LSTM is currently taking the its 125 years of rich art, history, and science to venues across the city of Liverpool as part of the National Lottery Heritage-funded project, LSTM – Past, Present, and Future.
The pop-up exhibition, called the Tropical Medicine Time Machine, was recently at the World Museum, taking the visitors on a journey to learn about the LSTM’s vital work in the areas of disease vectors, snakebite research, public health, and travel health.
The event saw visitors, of all ages, delighted to explore the Tropical Medicine Time Machine, created by Sci-Art practitioners Tom Hyatt and Natasha Niethamer, who have been exploring the history and science of LSTM throughout the past eight months.
The Tropical Medicine Time Machine was joined by LSTM’s Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions (CSRI) who told visitors of the impact of snakebite on the world’s most disadvantaged subsistence farming communities, with snakebite killing 81 000 – 138 000 people every year. The CSRI team, who also feature in the Tropical Medicine Time Machine, spoke of how they work to better understand the biology of snake venoms and use this information to improve the efficacy, safety, and affordability of antivenom treatment of tropical snakebite victims. Read more about their life-saving research here.
Community Volunteer, Paula Wright, who has recently retired from LSTM’s Clinical Diagnostic Parasitology Service demonstrated how malaria is detected in the blood of infected individuals. She showed museumgoers the species of malaria parasites that a human could encounter following the bite of an infected mosquito, highlighting that the methods utilised by the diagnostics team to identify parasites in blood today are the same used by LSTM’s earliest scientists.
She also encouraged the audience to reflect on the importance of swift diagnostics to quickly treat an individual with the deadliest forms of malaria.
The CSRI and the Clinical Diagnostics Service were also joined by LSTM scientists from the departments of Tropical Disease Biology and Vector Biology. Tropical Disease Biology and Vector Biology brought creative games, crafts, and fun interactive activities to the World Museum delighting audiences by pitting families against the robotics used in their laboratories in a game of ‘Beat the Robot.’
The Tropical Medicine Time Machine exhibition will be back at the World Museum over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Join us to explore the history and science of LSTM through fun and interactive games and activities, which are suitable for all ages and abilities. For more information, visit here
The World Museum is also currently hosting two display cases showcasing the story of LSTM’s first female lecturer, Dr Alwen Evans, and her beautiful and detailed scientific illustrations. For more information visit here.
If you would like to know more information about volunteering at one of the Tropical Medicine Time Machine events, please contact info@lstmed.ac.uk for more details. No prior scientific knowledge is required.
You can find out more about where the next LSTM-Past, Present, and Future event will be by following LSTM on social media (@LSTMnews on Twitter and LSTM on Facebook). LSTM would like to thank National Lottery players for their support, in enabling this important project to go ahead.