Featured Posts | Professor Joe Cain

Bikini Atomic Test 1946 Coverage in LIFE magazine

Bikini Atomic Test 1946 in LIFE magazine

Atomic testing on the Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in June-July 1946 as Operation Crossroads were the first “public” tests of American atomic weapons. These were public in the sense that they were covered widely by […]

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 exhibits impressive mechanical ingenuity, it […]

What’s This? It’s Erasmus Darwin’s Sitting Chair

You never know what you’ll find searching through storage spaces at UCL. I previously wrote about some medical data cards re-discovered. Last year, I was invited to help sort through some historical materials in storage managed […]

Graduates celebrating after UCL ceremony.

Letters of Reference and Recommendation

Students ask for letters of reference and recommendation. Writing them is an important responsibility for tutors. It’s something we take extremely seriously. But what goes into a letter of recommendation? Top Tips When Requesting References […]

Clarity at last! Use this hierarchy of elements in podcasting

Vague terminology in podcasting confuses expectations and ambitions. A proposal to “make a podcast” can sound simultaneously daunting and simple. One person might describe a short mp3 dictation of a story as a “mini podcast”. […]

Broadcast clock generator sample 30 minute episode

Broadcast Clock Generator App

I needed a quick and easy broadcast clock for creating podcast episodes. (There is a great episode of ‘99% Invisible’ on broadcast clocks that is well worth listening to.) While I found a few apps […]

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 simple example, I have put […]

John Martin's 1837 The Country of the Iguanodon

The Country of the Iguanodon, by Gideon Mantell – Two Versions

“The Country of the Iguanodon” is Gideon Mantell’s attempt to imagine the paleoecology of dinosaurs. Transcripts of 1838 and 1851 descriptions.

[…]

Gideon Mantell (1851) Petrifactions and Their Teaching, frontispiece, Notoris mantelli

Gideon Mantell’s 1851 Guide to Fossils at British Museum

Gideon Mantell’s 1851 guide to fossils at British Museum, including Iguanodon, Megalosaurus, Hylaeosaurus, marine reptiles, and more.

[…]

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.

[…]

Professor Joe Cain

UCL Professor of History and Philosophy of Biology

Highlights