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Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. 1854 Photograph.

Queen Victoria Visited Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Crystal Palace Dinosaurs several times during the site’s construction in 1853 and 1854. In November 1853, the Royals visited the Model-Room, or Studio, of [...]

Crystal Palace Park, by George Baxter (1854), with sculptures by Waterhouse Hawkins and landscaping by Paxton. Baxter process print

George Baxter and the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

The famous 1854 print by George Baxter of Crystal Palace and Park at Sydenham is a favourite for those who explore the history of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. The post investigates [...]

#208 When Fieldwork Goes Wrong Go Public | WeAreSTS

Today, an experiment: can Generative AI replace this podcast? There’s a new feature in the GenAI service, Google Notebook LM, that creates an audio discussion about texts you give it. [...]

SWOT analysis banner presented as interlocking jigsaw puzzle pieces

GenAI Helps Review Patterns in Student SWOT Projects for Publishing Module (Postgraduate)

I’ve used generative AI to help me review patterns in my marking and feedback given for student assignments in the module, HPSC0044 Publishing as Science Communication. This module is taught [...]

HPSC0041 Dissertation

Undergraduates in UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) undertake final year projects resulting in dissertations or research reports. Students undertake a research project largely of their own design in the field of science […]

HPSC0155 Science Communication Final Project

UCL’s Science Communication MSc degree culminates in a science communication project of the student’s own design. This project is documented by a project proposal in Term 3 and a final product submitted near the end […]

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

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

Eoörnis pterovelox gobiensis (Eoornis) | EGP

Meet Eoörnis (Eoornis), the woofen-poof. As the author explains, ‘Through countless ages and successive civilizations this remarkable bird has been the symbol of speed, stamina, grace of line, proportion of members, and beauty of motion.’ […]

Oxford Museum of Natural History exterior on a bright, sunny day | ProfJoeCain

Oxford Museum of Natural History Meets Gothic Revival | EGP

A guided tour through key architectural and design philosophies underpinning the Oxford Museum of Natural History by Henry Acland, who played a key role in the design of the new university science museum in the […]

Cain 2007 Regular Contact With Anyone Interested - Dobzhansky and friends on his new car

Regular Contact with Anyone Interested: Documents of Society for the Study of Speciation | EGP

Organising the Society for the Study of Speciation was a simple affair in 1939. The job of implementing its vision fell upon the entomologist Alfred Emerson, recruited to serve as Secretary. ‘The need was felt by […]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

Synthesis Period in Evolutionary Studies

Society for the Study of Speciation: Bibliographic Analysis using LLM

Descended from Darwin – Context for the Evolutionary Synthesis

Systematics and the Origin of Species (1942) by Ernst Mayr

Genetics and the Origin of Species (1937) by Theodosius Dobzhansky

George Gaylord Simpson’s “Night Thoughts on Leaving the American Museum of Natural History”

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Queen Victoria Visited Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

George Baxter and the Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

GenAI in Research

#208 When Fieldwork Goes Wrong Go Public | WeAreSTS

GenAI Helps Review Patterns in Student SWOT Projects for Publishing Module (Postgraduate)

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JBS Haldane’s Mathematical Theory of Natural and Artificial Selection (1924-1934)

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HPSC Modules 2026-27