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Dinner in the Iguanodon Model, at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham

New Year’s Eve Dinner in the Iguanodon at Crystal Palace 31 December 1853

The “Dinner in the Iguanodon Model” is the best known story involving Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. That dinner took place on New Year’s Eve 31 December 1853. It was immortalised in an [...]

Pterodactyl (Oolite) statues in Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, restored 2000, damaged after 2005

Pterodactyl statues in Crystal Palace Dinosaurs | missing

Following this month’s damage to one of the most famous Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, Megalosaurus, I’m reminded of the pterodactyl statues (properly, pterosaurs) that were original to the collection. Those were [...]

Broadcast clock generator sample 30 minute episode

Broadcast Clock Generator App

I needed a quick and easy broadcast clock for creating podcast episodes. (There is a great episode of ‘99% Invisible’ on broadcast clocks that is well worth listening to.) While [...]

Sample Medical Card for Croydon Schoolboys 1920s-1930s

Medical Cards for Croydon Schoolchildren 1920s-1930s

Historians must make more – and more creative – use of AI technologies for data analysis as well as for routine task of data sorting and transcription. To create a [...]

HPSC0044 Science and the Publishing Industry

The publishing industry is enormous. It shapes science communication in fundamental ways. This module investigates publishing. How does it work? How does it enable, constrain, and challenge science communication? The module covers a wide range […]

HPSC0028 History of Life Sciences

A historical survey of the biological sciences from the Enlightenment to the present. What are the big names and big ideas? How were they received at the time and appropriated later? Who’s been ignored and […]

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

This page is in development. Please return in September 2026. Until then, please enjoy these cartoons. What are these?

Second Brown Dog Statue, Battersea Park, London, UK. Joe Cain

Brown Dog Statue in Battersea Park London | EGP

Protests were sure to follow the unveiling of the brown dog statue in Battersea, London, in 1906 in Latchmere Recreation Ground. The little terrier had become the focus of an anti-vivisection campaign directed against Professor William Bayliss […]

Cumberland Clark. 1929. Shakespeare and Science. ISBN 978-1-906267-39-1.

Shakespeare and Science: Biology, Physics, Chemistry and More from the Bard | EGP

Cumberland Clarke’s Shakespeare and Science is a monumental compilation of the William Shakespeare’s many references to natural and celestial phenomena, including a careful study of the Bard’s interest in, and dramatic use of, natural phenomena. […]

Philip Henry Gosse (1854) Handbook to the Marine Aquarium - Euston Grove Press ISBN 9781906267186 | starfish in aquarium at London Zoo ZSL

Handbook to the Marine Aquarium, 1856 Manual | EGP

This handbook to the marine aquarium was one of the first manuals with practical instructions for constructing, stocking, and maintaining a marine fish tank, and for collecting plants and animals to stock that tank. It’s […]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

Synthesis Period in Evolutionary Studies

Columbia Biological Series, 1894-1974

Haldane. Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection (1924-1934)

Historical Significance of George Gaylord Simpson’s Tempo and Mode in Evolution (1944)

Evolution: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 1 | EGP

One Hundred and One Mendelians – Buttolph (2008)

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

New Year’s Eve Dinner in the Iguanodon at Crystal Palace 31 December 1853

Pterodactyl statues in Crystal Palace Dinosaurs | missing

LLMs and GenAI in Research

Broadcast Clock Generator App

Medical Cards for Croydon Schoolchildren 1920s-1930s

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Crystal Palace Dinosaurs – Rare 1968 Pamphlet – 150,000,000 B.C.

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HPSC Modules 2026-27