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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 [...]

Illuminations by C. T. Brock and Co, Sutton, Surrey, England. Advertising postcard for Brock’s Crystal Palace Fireworks and Illuminations, postmarked 1906.

Brock’s Illuminations 1906 Connected with Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Brock’s Illuminations and Fireworks might be celebrating Crystal Palace Dinosaurs in their famous and rare 1906 postcard promoting their “Illuminations” at Crystal Palace. It’s possible, but I think that is [...]

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 [...]

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 […]

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 […]

HPSC0009 Introduction to History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

This page is in development. Please return in September 2026. Find out more.

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 […]

Richard the Lionheart statue outside UK Houses of Parliament

Nature of Gothic: A Chapter from The Stones of Venice (John Ruskin) | EGP

The famous essay by John Ruskin, The Nature of Gothic, first appeared as a chapter in his 1853 The Stones of Venice. This chapter proved immensely popular and took on a life of its own. […]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

Synthesis Period in Evolutionary Studies

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

Using LLMs to query 1939 International Genetical Congress

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

Evolution: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 1 | EGP

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

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Queen Victoria Visited Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Brock’s Illuminations 1906 Connected with Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

LLMs and GenAI in Research

Medical Cards for Croydon Schoolchildren 1920s-1930s

Project Pitch Explained for HPSC0044 Undergraduates

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Studio for Crystal Palace Dinosaurs: Enter The Extinct Animals Model-Room

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HPSC Modules 2026-27

HPSC0155 Science Communication Final Project

HPSC0028 History of Life Sciences

HPSC0009 Introduction to History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

Open Access Titles | Euston Grove Press

Oxford Museum of Natural History Meets Gothic Revival | EGP

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

Nature of Gothic: A Chapter from The Stones of Venice (John Ruskin) | EGP