Science & Technology

Lauren Kassell reveals how the casebooks, diaries and diagrams of the late-16th-century astrologer Simon Forman provide a unique perspective on a period when the study of the stars began to embrace modern science.

‘Have the authors of a two-penny weekly journal, a right to make a national inquiry'? 18th-century governments thought not and neither did the newspapers’ readers of the time.

Richard Cavendish describes the maiden voyage of the Queen Mary on May 27th, 1936.

Richard Cavendish remembers Ivan Pavlov who died on February 27th, 1936. Pavlov won the Nobel Prize for physiology in 1904.

To conclude his series on the opportunities offered to historians by new technology, Nick Poyntz looks at how recent developments may help to bridge the gap between academic and public history.

The Royal Society was founded in 1660 to promote scientific research. Through a process of trial and error, this completely new kind of institution slowly discovered how its ambitions might be achieved – often in ways unforeseen by its founders, writes Michael Hunter.

Though they originated in China, it was in the capitals of early modern Europe that fireworks flourished. They united art and science in awesome displays of poltical might, as Simon Werrett explains.

John Etty shows the vital importance of aviation in the Stalinist Soviet Union.

Nick Poyntz looks at the ways in which mobile phone 'apps' can bring historical insight to our everyday environment.

The enormous growth in user-generated content made possible by such developments as the wiki, presents exciting opportunities as well as potential perils for historians, as Nick Poyntz explains.