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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 [...]

Close-up. Cartoon appearing in Punch 1855, volume 28, page 50, “The Effects of a Hearty Dinner After Visiting the Antediluvian Department at Crystal Palace,” featuring Crystal Palace Dinosaurs.

Punch 1855 Cartoon Dreaming of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

The cartoon depicting a man dreaming of monsters is one of two famous illustrations from Punch magazine referencing Crystal Palace Dinosaurs. In a previous post, I presented the other 1855 cartoon, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Proceedings of the Seventh International Genetical Congress held in 1939 and published in 1941.

Using LLMs to query 1939 International Genetical Congress

What work can large-language models (LLMs) do for historical researching? They offer tools for voluminous compilation of data ready for complex human analysis. They can organise and reorganise data. They can extract data from source material. They can be set to search for trends. We’re coming to grips with LLM tools for historical researching, and we’re quickly moving well beyond the LLM-as-author model so distrusted in our community. Historians must push ourselves to be as creative and demanding of LLM resources as those in our sister disciplines.

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HPSC0009 Introduction to History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

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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 […]

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

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

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 […]

Tiger in UCL Grant Museum of Zoology - cover for Cain - No Ordinary Space

No Ordinary Space: UCL Grant Museum | EGP

UCL’s Grant Museum of Zoology moved to the Thomas Lewis Room in UCL’s Rockefeller Building in 2011. No Ordinary Space is a book designed to answer popular historical questions about the room, the building, and […]

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

New Evidence on Dobzhansky 1936 “Jesup” lectures

Patricide in the Repeated Assassination of George Gaylord Simpson

One Hundred and One Mendelians – Buttolph (2008)

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Brock’s Illuminations 1906 Connected with Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Punch 1855 Cartoon Dreaming of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

GenAI in Research

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

Medical Cards for Croydon Schoolchildren 1920s-1930s

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Using LLMs to query 1939 International Genetical Congress

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HPSC Modules 2026-27

HPSC0009 Introduction to History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science

HPSC0041 Dissertation

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

Open Access Titles | Euston Grove Press

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

No Ordinary Space: UCL Grant Museum | EGP

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