Lesser-known inventions of great minds

After spending over a decade mapping our Milky Way, the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite is now being put into retirement. The spacecraft has almost depleted its reserves of the cold nitrogen ga

In 1798, Britain’s most celebrated admiral pursued the French across the Mediterranean, attempting to thwart General Bonaparte’s mission to Egypt. The pursuit culminated in what was arguably the most strategically important naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars

I use a lot of images in my blogs, published articles and presentations. Some are photos of people. Many are diagrams, graphs or copies of documents from parish registers, books and articles or websit

One day late in 1939, a small article appeared in our daily newspaper. It was submitted by the government and was an appeal for British women to knit socks for men in the army, which was unable to obt

Shaka the african savannah elephant is standing in the middle of an expansive field, staring intently at us. His ears are forward, his face is alert and he doesn’t appear stressed or, can we say, unha

How many detectives are faced with the entire population of an island putting on a play for them?” This was the question director Robin Hardy posited as the central mystery to his 1973 masterpiece, Th