The Rise and Fall of the Age of Miracles
Roy Porter charts the whirlwind of medical triumphs that promised limitless progress in human health and our more sober reflections on the eve of the third millennium.
Science & Technology
Wonder-Weapons - A Means to the End?
Vasily Andreev on how far War (and the fear of it) has fuelled innovation this century.
Forge Mill Needle Museum
Richard Cavendish unthreads the history of this Worcestershire museum.
Edmond Halley: Astronomer and Explorer
Edmond Halley was far more than a man who watched comets. His adventures aboard HMS Paramour represent one of the earliest voyages of purely scientific discovery.
The X Factor in X-rays
New innovations in radiology have sparked public criticism as to its safety and cost-effectiveness. Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen's discovery of the X-ray in 1895 and its subsequent use in medicine sparked similar safety and health hazard concerns throughout its development.
Potter's Museum of Curiosity
Richard Cavendish muses on the 'stuffed' of history in the animal kingdom in Bodmin Moor.
Dutch Maps and English Ships In The Eastern Seas
Richard Pflederer on the technological and cartographical advances of the early modern naval powers of Holland and England
Creating the First Computer
Babbage’s Difference Engine and the mechanical pre-history of computing.
Time, Tide and Michael Faraday
The story of Michael Faraday, the genius of electricity, is very much a classic tale of the rise from obscure origins to scientific eminence. But as Frank James notes, an important chapter was the commercial work Faraday did for the army and navy in order to secure his freedom to pursue pure research.
Diggers and Databases
Jeffrey Grey on how computers are profiling Australia's First World War combatants