Homepage | Professor Joe Cain

Sketch of Dinner in Iguanodon Model as remembered by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, 1862. Source: Letter from Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins to Edward James Alfred Trimmer, 27 August, British Library Add MS 50150 f215. Photo: ProfJoeCain CC BY NC.

Remembering Dinner in the Dinosaur: Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins’ 1862 Sketch

Near the end of August 1862, Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894) wrote to Edward Trimmer (1827-1904) with a brief mention of the New Year’s Eve dinner in Iguanodon mould. The letter [...]

John Ruskin (1854) The Opening of the Crystal Palace. Title page

Ruskin’s 1854 Critique of Crystal Palace (Sydenham)

John Ruskin did not like the new Crystal Palace Sydenham when it opened in 1854. In Opening of the Crystal Palace (1854), he launches his critique, arguing that while the glass structure [...]

Ernst Mayr’s (1942) Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist. Title page

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

Ernst Mayr‘s (1904-2005) book, Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist was published in 1942 by Columbia University Press in their Columbia Biological Series. This [...]

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 [...]

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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2026-27 Modules

HPSC0009 Introduction to History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

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Physiological Genetics: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 3. Edited by Joe Cain. ISBN 9781906267049

Physiological Genetics: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 3 | 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 […]

Genetics: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 2. Edited by Joe Cain. ISBN 9781906267032

Genetics: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 2 | EGP

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 […]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

Synthesis Period in Evolutionary Studies

Physiological Genetics: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 3 | EGP

Sergei Sergeevich Chetverikov (1880-1959) Russian population geneticist

Exploring the Borderlands of Evolutionary Synthesis

New Evidence on Dobzhansky 1936 “Jesup” lectures

International Genetical Congress (1939, Seventh): Queries using LLM

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Remembering Dinner in the Dinosaur: Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins’ 1862 Sketch

Ruskin’s 1854 Critique of Crystal Palace (Sydenham)

GenAI in Research

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

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

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Medical Cards for Croydon Schoolchildren 1920s-1930s

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HPSC Modules 2026-27

HPSC0011 STS Perspectives on Big Problems

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

HPSC0009 Introduction to History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

Open Access Titles | Euston Grove Press

Physiological Genetics: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 3 | EGP

Genetics: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 2 | EGP

Brown Dog Statue in Battersea Park London | EGP