Homepage | Professor Joe Cain

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

The Dinosaur Gallery in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (Brussels Museum of Natural History) includes the famous Bernissart Iguanodons. This consists of thirty complete or nearly complete skeletons [...]

The Extinct Animals Model-Room at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. Illustrated London News. Published 31 December 1853.

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

The famous engraving of New Year’s Eve Dinner in Iguanodon, published in Illustrated London News on 07 January 1854, appeared only one week after readers of the popular weekly magazine [...]

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 [...]

HPSC0097 Research Project

Postgraduate taught students in UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies (STS) undertake summer research projects resulting in dissertations or research reports. Professor Joe Cain supervises some students in this work, as do all academic […]

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

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

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

Synthesis Period in Evolutionary Studies

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

Patricide in the Repeated Assassination of George Gaylord Simpson

Genetics: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 2 | EGP

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

New Evidence on Dobzhansky 1936 “Jesup” lectures

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

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

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

LLMs and GenAI in Research

Medical Cards for Croydon Schoolchildren 1920s-1930s

Project Pitch Explained for HPSC0044 Undergraduates

Categories

Featured

Reverie at the Crystal Palace – 1854 poster in Punch magazine

Recent Posts

HPSC Modules 2026-27