Writing & research
Hallucinogenic Books
Libraries can expand your mind in more ways than one. A leading London mycologist has claimed that old books, particularly those stored in less than...
Photographic Revolution
Edwin Herbert Land was a visionary scientist and inventor who 70 years ago changed the picture-taking habits of people around the world, the result...
X Marks The Spot
This is a tale of two halves. It begins around the turn of the 20th century, with the establishment of a new private printing press near the banks...
Decoding A Star
"You wouldn't believe how many goths we get posing outside for pictures," says Father Brian Ralph, vicar of the church of St Barnabas at Bethnal...
I Eat Cheese, Therefore I Write
Of course it's slightly more complicated than my play on Rene Descartes' famous philosophical proposition. But in simple terms, the discovery of...
Cousins Across The Centuries
The most famous symbol of human-caused extinction - the dodo - and the ubiquitous pigeon have more in common than you might think. If you had been...
I Like Evolution And I Cannot Lie
When Sir Mix-a-Lot sang about big butts, there was more to it than just aesthetics. Well, maybe not for him. But, what the more...
Law And Order
Though it occupies a site which has been a centre of power since at least the Middle Ages, London’s iconic Palace of Westminster - or Houses of...
Body Building
A company in London does a roaring trade in arms, legs, torsos and various other body parts. Set back from the street in Walthamstow, a newly-hip...
Taxidermy Through The Ages
Some say it’s macabre, others that it’s a second chance at life. Whatever your views on taxidermy, it is a practice that is inextricably linked with...
Star Specimen: Eugen Sandow, The ‘Perfect Man’
Behind the Scenes at the Natural History Museum, London When the naked models for the Musuem's Britain: One Million Years of the Human Story...
Senses, Drinks and Rock n Roll
Why do guitars taste of hops? It wasn’t a question I’d ever considered until I saw it posed as the title of a multi-sensory beer and music matching...
Star Specimen: A Book On The Evolution Of The Book On Evolution
Behind the Scenes at the Natural History Museum The topic of this blog post is quite possibly the newest specimen in the Museum's collection, as it...
Goodbye Gary Arber
By the time you read this, Arber’s will be gone. WF Arber and Co Ltd printing works, run by three generations of Arber men over 117 years, shut its...
The Rossendale Fairies: A Scientific Tale Of Small Proportions
Behind the Scenes at the Natural History Museum, London This week I came across links to several versions of a story out of Manchester claiming a...