Volume 46 Issue 11 November 1996

Energy - Genie or Genius?

Joachim Radkau reviews the power revolutions of steam, electricity and oil - harbingers of dramatic change in technology and social expectations.

The March of Time

Asa Briggs comments on the historical division of time, and whether such landmarks as centuries and millennia hold any real meaning.

The Heavens and the Earth

Rudolf Kippenhahn on how astronomy has altered our vision of the universe - from 10th-century Cairo to the Big Bang.