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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 [...]

“The New Crystal Palace at Sydenham,” The Illustrated London News, 21 August 1852.

New Crystal Palace at Sydenham – 1852 – First Look

In August 1852, The Illustrated London News published a first look at the new Crystal Palace attraction at Sydenham. This included a design vision for the revised glasshouse and the [...]

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 [...]

Project Pitch Explained for HPSC0044 Undergraduates

In HPSC0044 Science and the Publishing Industry students develop a book proposal. First, they sketch an idea. Second, they deliver a project pitch. Third, they submit a book proposal. To [...]

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

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2026-27 Modules

HPSC0009 Introduction to History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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

George Gaylord Simpson (1902-1984) bibliography

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

Sergei Sergeevich Chetverikov (1880-1959) Russian population geneticist

Columbia Biological Series, 1894-1974

Ernst Mayr and the Biology of Birds Exhibit at AMNH

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Pterodactyl statues in Crystal Palace Dinosaurs | missing

New Crystal Palace at Sydenham – 1852 – First Look

GenAI in Research

Medical Cards for Croydon Schoolchildren 1920s-1930s

Project Pitch Explained for HPSC0044 Undergraduates

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Bernissart Iguanodons in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels

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HPSC Modules 2026-27