Patricia Fara

The women who served as munitions workers during the First World War endured dismal conditions and a plethora of dangers: illness, injury, and death. Why are they barely remembered?

Irked by both his character and his tendency towards corruption, Jonathan Swift spent years ruthlessly satirising Isaac Newton.

During the Second World War, Berlin scientists discovered nuclear fission. Only one of them got the credit. Why was Lise Meitner written out of history?

By the 19th century, standard classification systems were struggling with new species. Then the platypus arrived.

Hertha Ayrton’s experiment in a bathtub may have saved lives in the trenches, but it caused ripples among the ranks of the Royal Society.

Arsenic was a hidden killer in Victorian homes, but it also played a large part in the British economy. Which comes first: commerce or public health?

‘Who is the most underrated person in history? Tupaia, the Tahitian navigator and translator who enabled James Cook to reach Australia and New Zealand’

Surgeons trying to eliminate pain eventually arrived at anaesthesia – but not before a contest with older, more unusual therapies. Why was mesmerism so magnetic?

How many planets are there? As with the discovery of Uranus, the answer depends on who you ask.

An enfant terrible shook up Renaissance medicine by denouncing experts and debunking accepted wisdom. Was Paracelsus as radical as he seemed?