The ‘Monstrous Birth’ of Lobsters
The fact that lobsters ‘walked’ on their claws puzzled even Aristotle. He had to employ all his deductive genius to explain why.
Natural History
A Donkey’s Day in Court
In 1822 a badly abused donkey became the first animal to receive justice in a British court.
A Philosophy of Falcons
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, was obsessed with falconry. This led him to write a truly revolutionary book on the subject.
One Giant Leap for Tortoise-Kind
The first of Earth’s creatures to hurtle into the Moon’s orbit were slow and sedentary residents of the Great Steppe.
The End of Turtle Soup
How food fashion changed the economy of the Cayman Islands.
Benjamin Banneker’s Broods of Cicadas
Captivated by swarming cicadas, the young son of a freed slave was inspired to become one of the greatest minds of the American Enlightenment.
Placing the Platypus
Defying categorisation since its discovery, was the platypus a mammal, a reptile, or something else?
Catullus and Lesbia’s Sparrow
A Roman poet transformed an unremarkable bird into a contested symbol of eroticism.
A Feather in her Cap
A global trade in feathers, with London at its heart, saw hundreds of millions of birds killed every year. Emily Williamson waged a long and furious campaign against it.
Pigeon Racing: A Miner’s World?
Men who spent their working lives underground found a new world of freedom in racing birds.