History of science

essayArt
In the glow of the candle
Joseph Wright of Derby put science at the centre of his art. Eclipsed in his lifetime, his work still burns with radical ideas
Charlotte Mullins

essayEarth science and climate
When sleeping volcanoes wake
The next global disaster may be triggered by a catastrophic eruption. How can we prepare for the fire beneath our feet?
Mike Cassidy

essayCosmology
The Big Bang’s big gaps
The current theory for the origin of the Universe is remarkably successful yet full of explanatory holes. Expect surprises
Jim Baggott

essayMetaphysics
Reality is evil
Everything eats and is eaten. Everything destroys and is destroyed. It is our moral duty to strike back at the Universe
Drew M Dalton

videoHistory of science
Insect aesthetics – long viewed as pests, in the 16th century bugs became beautiful
8 minutes

essayThinkers and theories
The French liar
René Descartes, the founder of modern philosophy, was furiously condemned by his contemporaries. Why did they fear him?
Sandrine Parageau

essayNeurodiversity
Rethinking adult ADHD
The diagnostic category of adult ADHD is becoming more inclusive. That’s not the same as it being overdiagnosed
Margaret Sibley

videoHistory of science
How we came to know the size of the Universe – and what mysteries remain
26 minutes

essayHistory of science
Injury and inhibition
The misunderstood story of Phineas Gage shows that we need a new way of understanding the experiences of brain injury survivors
Ben Platts-Mills

essayStories and literature
Merveilleux-scientifique
With brain swaps and death rays, a little-known French sci-fi genre explored science’s dark possibilities a century ago
Fleur Hopkins-Loféron

essayHistory of science
Incredible testimonies
In the 1980s, thousands of Americans began to suspect they may have been abducted by aliens. What happened?
Greg Eghigian

videoArt
Defying classification, fantastical artworks reframe the racism of Carl Linnaeus
8 minutes

essayPhilosophy of science
Why philosophy of physics?
Some physicists reject philosophy as a distraction from ‘real’ science but it is in fact both useful and beautiful
James Read

essayHistory of science
A nasogenital tale
A bizarre theory (and a gory surgery) in fin-de-siècle Vienna help us get a grip on how science and medicine actually work
Urte Laukaityte

essayHistory of science
The light beyond sight
Only a tiny sliver of the Universe’s light can be seen by human eyes. But today we’re catching glimpses of the invisible
Corey S Powell

videoHistory of science
Meet the Quaker pacifist who shattered British science’s highest glass ceilings
14 minutes

videoHistory of science
Ideas ‘of pure genius’ – how astronomers have measured the Universe across history
29 minutes

essayPhysics
The cat that wouldn’t die
The weird paradox of Schrödinger’s cat has found a lasting popularity. What does it mean for the future of quantum physics?
Jim Baggott

essayGenetics
Beanbag genetics
Today a bitter dispute about the nature of biology is underway. A simple bag of beans may be what tips the balance
Zachary B Hancock

essayNeurodiversity
Autism’s missing women
Long believed to be particularly associated with males, new research is revolutionising our understanding of autism
Gina Rippon

essayHistory of science
Legacy of the angels
When medieval scholars sought to understand the nature of angels, they unwittingly laid the foundations of modern physics
Rebekah Wallace

essayChildhood and adolescence
Hegemony and childcare
Early childhood development interventions in the Global South is a huge industry built on highly questionable assumptions
Francesca Mezzenzana & Gabriel Scheidecker

essayDeep time
The bookends of time
Nothing lasts forever: not humanity, not Earth, not the Universe. But finitude confers an indelible meaning to our lives
Thomas Moynihan

essayMathematics
Beyond causality
In order to bridge the yawning gulf between the humanities and the sciences we must turn to an unexpected field: mathematics
Gordon Gillespie