Topic description and stories

Would you place a Grand National bet on a Shetland pony?

20 Jul 2015

The Cambridge Animal Alphabet series celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, H is for...

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Comparison of embryos of fish, salamander, turtle, chick, pig, cow, rabbit and human embryos at three different stages of development.

Haeckel’s embryos: the images that would not go away

06 Jul 2015

A new book tells, for the first time in full, the extraordinary story of drawings of embryos initially published in 1868. The artist was accused of...

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Title page of Jane Squire's proposal for determining longitude

The lady of the longitude

30 Nov 2014

In 1714, the British Parliament offered large rewards for finding longitude at sea. Men around the world submitted schemes but only one woman, Jane...

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Portrait of Charles Darwin

The evolution of Darwin’s Origin: Cambridge releases 12,000 papers online

24 Nov 2014

The origins of Darwin’s theory of evolution – including the pages where he first coins and commits to paper the term ‘natural selection’ – are being...

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Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564) and the books that made the father of anatomy

17 Jul 2014

Born 500 years ago, Andreas Vesalius has iconic status in the history of science. Cambridge University Library holds several copies of the remarkable...

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Francesco Calzolari Cabinet of curiosities

What William Courten bought on 9 June 1698: 1 young Pelican, 2 Land Tortoises and a cap of seafowles skin

09 Jun 2014

A remarkable archive records the purchases made by William Courten (1642–1702) whose museum was praised by visitors as a noble collection of...

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Equatorie of the Planetis

Heavens above

27 May 2014

A 600-year-old astronomical document is now moving into the modern era, with a symposium at the Whipple Museum tomorrow (Wednesday 28 May) to mark...

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'The March of Intellect', etching c.1828. Robert Seymour ('Shortshanks')

Driving a harpoon deep into the floating carcass of Humbug

17 Apr 2014

In his latest book, Professor Jim Secord explores seven scientific books that made a lasting historical impact. Visions of Science concentrates on...

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Skulls in print: scientific racism in the transatlantic world

19 Mar 2014

A PhD student’s research at Cambridge’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science has revealed how racist ideas and images circulated between...

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Still from the film "Darwin's Women".

Darwin’s women

09 Sep 2013

On matters of gender, Charles Darwin was supposedly an arch-conservative - but new research suggests that he actively helped women who were striving...

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Screenshot from Attack Of The Zeppelins, which airs on Monday

Attack of the Zeppelins

23 Aug 2013

An investigation into how the Zeppelins worked, and how they were defeated, led by Cambridge engineer Hugh Hunt, forms the subject of a Channel 4...

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The longitude problem: 300-year-old archive opened to the world

18 Jul 2013

It was the conundrum that baffled some of the greatest and most eccentric experts of the 18th century - and captivated the British public during an...

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