In purgatory with Dante
The pursuit of astronomical study led a Victorian woman from Surrey to the Indian foothills.
Science & Technology
The Birth of Science in a Darkened Room
The father of modern optics could not have succeeded had he not feigned madness.
New York’s Forgotten Subway
Problems with public transport are almost as old as New York itself. One proposed solution was nothing but hot air.
Travels Through Time #4 – Simon Schaffer, 1684
In this episode Simon Schaffer, Professor of History of Science at the University of Cambridge, visits three events pivotal to the genesis of Isaac Newton's paradigm-shattering book the Principia Mathematica.
The Invention of World History
For most of history, different peoples, cultures and religious groups have lived according to their own calendars. Then, in the 11th century, a Persian scholar attempted to create a single, universal timeline for all humanity.
Tyrants and Robots
Autocrats have deployed automatons as weapons since antiquity, not just in myth but in reality.
Private Lives? Leave Me Out
As technology changes, so do ideas about the borders of the self and the nature of privacy.
Taking Science Seriously
A microhistory offers new insights into the creation of the Royal Society amid the intellectual brilliance of Restoration England.
Death of Nikola Tesla
Child genius, engineer, inventor and physicist, Nikola Tesla died on 7 January 1943.
The Antikythera Mechanism
Since its surprising discovery on the Aegean seabed over a century ago, the Antikythera mechanism has intrigued astrologers, classicists and historians of science.