Fear, Friendship and the Channel Tunnel
November 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the first passenger trains between London and Paris. What does the history of the Channel Tunnel tell us about Britain’s relationship with its neighbours?
Science & Technology
Paracelsus: Revolutionary or Mystic?
An enfant terrible shook up Renaissance medicine by denouncing experts and debunking accepted wisdom. Was Paracelsus as radical as he seemed?
Aliens and the Enlightenment
In the 18th century the existence of extraterrestrial life went from debatable hypothesis to fundamental tenet of Enlightenment thought.
The Extraordinary Rise and Inexplicable Decline of Lit & Phils
The Literary and Philosophical Society was once ubiquitous, allowing minds to meet and views to collide. Their disappearance has left more questions than answers.
A Brief History of English Numeracy
The people of late medieval and early modern England were almost universally numerate. Is our ability to count the thing that makes us human?
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and the Making of Stars
What are stars made of? When a young astronomer upset standard explanations for the formation of the solar system, the establishment told her she was wrong – then stole her findings.
The Death of a Mnemonist
Solomon Shereshevsky died on 1 May 1958. He dreamt of being a hero but achieved greatness of another kind.
‘Impossible Monsters’ by Michael Taylor review
Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin and the War between Science and Religion by Michael Taylor revels in the tangles of Victorian thought.
Measuring the Shape of the Earth
Was the Earth flatter around the poles or the Equator? In 1735 two expeditions set out to settle a matter of national pride.
Maria Graham and the Valparaíso Earthquake
An earthquake in Chile and the observations of eye-witness Maria Graham caused open hostility among 19th-century geologists.