A group consisting of both IB Art and Biology students visited the Ashmolean Museum on recently to enjoy a series of seminars that placed the human heart in a wide-ranging context, including medieval imagery, literature, philosophy and poetry, religious ethics and cutting edge science.
A stellar cast of experts from around the country, including leading cardiac surgeons and lecturers, provided the seminars which took place in the decidedly chilly but visually exciting Randolph Gallery on the ground floor of the museum with its backlit statues providing a timely reminder of another Doctor whose unique anatomy would certainly have interested the lead organiser, Professor Robin Choudhury.
The interdisciplinary nature of the seminars had a distinctly IB feel; having heard how Leonardo da Vinci is still having an impact on 21st Century cardiac surgery and that imaging techniques are being used to uncover hidden information both in oil paintings and our chests, the students certainly left with their fingers on the pulse concerning matters of the heart.
