Temporary Exhibitions
New Exhibition! on display 26th June - 2nd January 2011
Hair Splitting Images; How William Astbury's X-Ray Vision Changed the World.
Professor William Astbury, one of the ‘fathers’ of molecular biology, is the focus of a new exhibition at the Thackray Museum. Astbury identified patterns of protein structure, hair and wool and took the first X-ray fibre diffraction pictures of DNA. Some of the research into treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer’s is based on his pioneering work.
Hairsplitting Images – How William Astbury’s X-ray Vision Changed the World opens on Saturday 26th June and runs until Sunday 2nd January 2011. The exhibition will be accompanied by special events and talks; please keep checking the website for further information.
The exhibition is supported by The Royal Society, Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, the British Society for the History of Science and the Thackray Medical Research Trust.
If you would like to find out more about William Astbury, the museum’s Medical History Resource Centre holds additional material relating to William Astbury which you are very welcome to access. Come to the Centre on the second floor, but do please make an appointment first by calling us on 0113 244 4343. There are also two websites designed by the University of Leeds about William Astbury for you to consult; click on these links to acces them: www.leeds.ac.uk/heritage/Astbury/index.html and www.leeds.ac.uk/hpsmuseum/astbury.htm
Further information regarding the Royal Society can be obtained from www.royalsociety.org or by joining 'The Royal Society 350th anniversary' Facebook page.
A History of the World in Objects
The Thackray Museum is delighted to announce its participation in A History of the World, a partnership between the BBC and the British Museum focusing on world history, through objects. Our contribution is the artificial hip replacement, which is now on public display.
This metal artificial hip replacement was made at Thackray’s factory in Beeston between 1968 and 1975. It has an interesting history attached to it; the association between the company founded by Chas. F. Thackray and John (later Professor Sir John) Charnley, established in 1947 and which lasted until his death in 1982, is one of the great partnerships between medicine and commerce. Charnley was a highly skilled orthopaedic surgeon and his total hip replacement procedure, developed in the 1960s, has benefited hundreds of thousands of patients. Surgeons around the world still continue his work. This object is known as a 'femoral component prosthesis' and is made of stainless steel. It was fitted into the top of the thigh-bone and the ball-joint engaged in a hollow dome (an 'acetabular cup') in the pelvis, enabling the leg to articulate. This type is the 'Mark 1 Standard', etched on the stem as 'MK 1S' and is one of three initial designs devised by Charnley. The ball-joint's diameter is 7/8" (22mm), favoured by Charnley as giving few problems resulting from wear through friction.
For more information or to view other items in A History of the World, visit www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld
