Homepage | Professor Joe Cain

Pterodactyl (Oolite) statues in Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, restored 2000, damaged after 2005

Pterodactyl statues in Crystal Palace Dinosaurs | missing

Following this month’s damage to one of the most famous Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, Megalosaurus, I’m reminded of the pterodactyl statues (properly, pterosaurs) that were original to the collection. Those were [...]

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 [...]

Illustration of "ring species" concept, or Rassenkreis

Society for the Study of Speciation: Bibliographic Analysis using LLM

I provide data for an LLM-based analysis of the short-lived Society for the Study of Speciation (SSS), organised by Alfred Emerson, through three documents. […]

G. Ledyard Stebbins’s (1950) Variation and Evolution in Plants. Title page

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

G. Ledyard Stebbins‘ (1906-2000) book, Variation and Evolution in Plants, was published in 1950 by Columbia University Press in their Columbia Biological Series. This book played an important part in [...]

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 […]

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 […]

Cumberland Clark. 1929. Shakespeare and Science. ISBN 978-1-906267-39-1.

Shakespeare and Science: Biology, Physics, Chemistry and More from the Bard | EGP

Cumberland Clarke’s Shakespeare and Science is a monumental compilation of the William Shakespeare’s many references to natural and celestial phenomena, including a careful study of the Bard’s interest in, and dramatic use of, natural phenomena. […]

Sewall Wright Taught Me - Evolution - lecture notes Robert E Sloan

Sewall Wright Taught Me series: Evolution, Genetics, Physiological Genetics | EGP

The mathematical population geneticist and evolutionary biologist 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. […]

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 […]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

Synthesis Period in Evolutionary Studies

Sergei Sergeevich Chetverikov (1880-1959) Russian population geneticist

Society for the Study of Speciation: Bibliographic Analysis using LLM

Descended from Darwin – Context for the Evolutionary Synthesis

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

Genetics: Sewall Wright Taught Me, volume 2 | EGP

Crystal Palace Dinosaurs

Pterodactyl statues in Crystal Palace Dinosaurs | missing

Ruskin’s 1854 Critique of Crystal Palace (Sydenham)

GenAI in Research

Society for the Study of Speciation: Bibliographic Analysis using LLM

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

Categories

Featured

Robert Edmond Grant’s 1829 Summer Lectures Announced

Recent Posts

HPSC Modules 2026-27

HPSC0010 History of Modern Science

HPSC0028 History of Life Sciences

HPSC0097 Research Project

Open Access Titles | Euston Grove Press

Shakespeare and Science: Biology, Physics, Chemistry and More from the Bard | EGP

Sewall Wright Taught Me series: Evolution, Genetics, Physiological Genetics | EGP

Oxford Museum of Natural History Meets Gothic Revival | EGP