Science History

The Greeks hailed Dionysus (also known as Bacchus) as their patron god of wine, said to provide ecstasy and spiritual vision to his devotees. Pictured is Caravaggio's 1595 masterpiece Bacchus.…

Alexander von Humboldt. Self portrait By Richard Gunderman, Indiana University-Purdue University Gaze at Alexander Von Humboldt’s 1814 self-portrait and you peer into the eyes of a man who sought to…

Due to a loss of scientific relevance, which has led to scarcity of personnel and thus decreasing government funding, Italian natural history museums are on the verge of collapse.  A new paper…

Instead of dying out, Anti-Semitic myths have withstood the test of time. By Asa Simon Mittman, California State University, Chico 800 years ago, a monk named Thomas of Monmouth wrote a bogus account…

Abraham Lincoln. Wikipedia By Joanna Cohen, Queen Mary University of London Voters going to the polls in Illinois’s 12th congressional district in this year’s US midterm elections have a choice to…

Not the one we have fixed in our imaginations. Peter Paul Rubens, 1638 By Helen King, The Open University Hippocrates is considered the father of medicine, enemy of superstition, pioneer of…

Since the dawn of time, man has interacted with the environment. Observation without interaction is and always was a logical impossibility. Questions ensue; answers have not always been forthcoming,…

The Tambora volcanic eruption in 1815 is famous for its impact on climate worldwide. As a result, the year 1816 was given memorable names such as 'Eighteen-Hundred-and-Froze-to-Death', the 'Year of…

Richard III, in better days. Credit: Lex Photographic, CC BY-NC By Sarah Hainsworth, University of Leicester The discovery of Richard III’s skeletal remains under a car park in Leicester revealed the…

Or abandon hope? Credit: chrisdorney By Tim Crook, Goldsmiths, University of London The Old Bailey’s Central Criminal Court is an Edwardian building that bears the inscription “Defend the children of…