What an urban spaceman tells us about the human condition

An unusual astronaut is at the centre of a new exhibition of art and scientific artefacts designed to make us think about everything from our personal lives to the fate of humanity itself

"It's hard to think of a greater challenge to our future health than environmental breakdown," says Clare Barlow, project curator of Wellcome Collection's newest gallery. Opening on Thursday 5 September, Being Human is a new permanent exhibit that explores trust, hope and fear, identity and health in the 21st century through four sections: genetics, minds and bodies, infection and environmental breakdown.

The space, which for 12 years housed Medicine Now, has been redesigned with reclaimed wood panelling and warm colours by the Turner prize-winning arts and architecture collective Assemble. The exhibition "explores our relationship with ourselves, with each other and with the world around us", Barlow says. Each of the four sections asks a different question. "With minds and bodies the question is, why do we sometimes act like we value some lives more than others? With environmental breakdown, we ask why it's so hard for us to act on climate change, when its effects are already here. And with that, the question of how we're reacting to what's being lost and how we see ourselves living in the future."