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Crystal Palace in Sydenham. Undated postcard 61 showing glasshouse, gardens, and fountains.

Crystal Palace Company – First Annual General Meeting 1853

Crystal Palace Company formed in 1852 to purchase the glasshouse and remains of the 1851 Great Exhibition and somehow – no plan was clear at the start – restart it [...]

Close-up bottom row. “A Reverie at the Crystal Palace” in Punch magazine, 1854, volume 26, pages 250-251. Published 17 June 1854.

Reverie at the Crystal Palace – 1854 poster in Punch magazine

No-one was surprised when Punch magazine celebrated the grand opening of the Crystal Palace in Sydenham, with opening ceremonies on 10 June 1854. Illustrated London News, its competitor on the [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 […]

HPSC0011 STS Perspectives on Big Problems

The theme for 2026-27 will be “Food”. “Science and technology are two of the most important drivers of our world. As a field of study, STS is organised to interpret those activities in the past, […]

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

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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 […]

Evolution. Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 1. Edited by Joe Cain. ISBN 9781906267025

Evolution: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 1 | EGP

Sewall Wright taught throughout his long career. Between 1926-1955, he worked at the University of Chicago. During this time, he developed and taught both undergraduate and graduate courses. By the early 1930s, Wright’s teaching load […]

William Jennings Bryan arrives in Dayton, Tennessee for the 1925 Scopes Trial

Last Message of William Jennings Bryan (Scopes Trial) | EGP

As the Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial came to an end in July 1925, William Jennings Bryan expected to deliver the prosecution’s closing argument. Procedural tactics by the defence prevented this. The trial ended without the long-awaited […]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

Synthesis Period in Evolutionary Studies

Variation and Evolution in Plants (1950) by G. Ledyard Stebbins

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

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

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

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

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Crystal Palace Company – First Annual General Meeting 1853

Reverie at the Crystal Palace – 1854 poster in Punch magazine

GenAI in Research

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

Project Pitch Explained for HPSC0044 Undergraduates

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Did You Say ‘Alligator’? Mystery Animal Outside St Paul’s Cathedral

Recent Posts

HPSC Modules 2026-27

HPSC0155 Science Communication Final Project

HPSC0011 STS Perspectives on Big Problems

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

Open Access Titles | Euston Grove Press

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

Evolution: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 1 | EGP

Last Message of William Jennings Bryan (Scopes Trial) | EGP