And so to the winner of our Medical Masterpiece competition, inspired by the Wellcome Trust's exhibition Foreign Bodies, Common Ground, which is open in London until 9 February.
We asked you to send us your best song, poem, painting, video, sculpture, short story or photo on the theme of modern medicine and why it matters. We received a superb collection of entries: congratulations to everyone who entered.
Below are the five highest-scoring entries, as judged by New Scientist staff. In keeping with tradition the winner is last: their prize is a framed print from multimedia artists Miriam Syowia and James Muriuki, whose work is featured in the Wellcome Trust exhibition.
5. Untitled photographic study by Rhian Sneade
Rhian explores medicine chiefly through the windows of Manchester Royal Infirmary, which is of great importance to her: she's been a medical student, a masters student and a patient there. She views modern medicine through the building in which it is housed, trying to bring out its beauty and worth.
4. At the neurologist. Thoughts of a patient by Brian Briggs
Would it be better
Just to cry?
Let go, be truly afraid?
Not sleep, not eat, skip work?
Max out the credit card?
It is no comfort to be told
'You are OK'
He slipped the disc into the machine
with some degree of practised grace,
clicked ON, and lit my thoughts across his screen.
I saw but didn't understand.
'We call this RIS' he said
I can't remember what that meant,
but know that something's ready,
smeared inside my brain
and it's not consulting me.
And then there was no choice.
Tears.
Later.
I read a copy of his letter;
'There are confluent white matter lesions throughout the majority of the subcortical white matter in the right hemisphere. Importantly there are no infratentorial lesions'.
'So far you're symptom free.
Lets just rescan in two months' time.'
OK for him.
3. Leaflet by Miriam Dolby
Here, take a leaflet
This leaflet will take care of you.
It is sensible leaflet
full of common sense
And practical help.
Take one please.
It will patiently answer
all your difficult and pressing questions.
It will reassure you
and be a guide towards
health and happiness.
Take one please.
This leaflet cares about you
and your problems.
At night at your bedside
it will be full of helpful
advice and consolation.
Take one please.
This leaflet treats you unconditionally
without bias, without noticing
any of your more irritating habits
or the whining tone
in your voice.
Take one please.
It won't make judgements
about your appearance
or demand you give up
any of your detrimental addictions
or discomfit yourself to any degree.
Take one please.
It does not get tired
or overworked
or stressed to the point of screaming
just take the blasted leaflet will
you and go away.
Take one
Take one please.
2. Scar by Shelley Stocken
I've a mark upon my torso
Like a zipper, only more so.
It commences at my suprasternal dent;
Then continues down my centre,
Like a stocking seam is meant to,
Though its terminus is very slightly bent.
When I got it, I was nascent.
Had my doctors been complacent,
My life might have been as fleeting as a fart.
But persistent cyanosis
Meant a rapid diagnosis
Of a blocked pulmonary valve inside my heart.
Quite a fiddly operation
Soon restored my respiration;
My complexion turned a healthy baby pink.
Now I'm fixed, though I was broken;
And I bear a fleshy token
Of my short post-natal visit to the brink.
People might think I'm ill-fated
Or in some way mutilated
Or I don't know when they're trying not to stare.
But when I look, all I see,
Is just the provenance of me
And the nicest thing that I could ever wear.
1. Somebody That I'll Never Know by Brooke Huuskes
This video is a parody of the Gotye song and video Somebody That I Used To Know, and is given new life by bending it to the theme of organ donation. Brooke's interest and passion for this topic stems from the fact that she has had a kidney transplant. Congratulations to Brooke for an inspiring video. Let's hope it changes at least a few people's minds about organ donation!
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