The Radioactive Reindeer Problem
Cold War nuclear testing left troubling levels of Cesium-137 in caribou, prompting years of research into Arctic fallout and its risks to human health.
The Bee Dance Debate
Can insects communicate? In the middle of the twentieth century, scientists disagreed on whether bees could possess a “language” expressed through motion.
Man of Science, Man of God
In The Water-Babies, Charles Kingsley parodied the dogmatic belief held by many in Victorian England that faith and reason are incompatible.
Viruses Through the Looking-Glass
The electron microscope brought about a paradigm shift in virology in the middle of the twentieth century.
HMS Challenger and the History of Science at Sea
Sailing ships were once used as scientific instruments themselves, but in the 1800s, ships like the Challenger were transformed into floating laboratories.
Cinchona: A Legacy of Extraction and Extirpation
The source of quinine, cinchona tells a story about the value placed on parts of plants and how that value can be extracted and distorted in support of empire.
Burke and Hare…and Knox
Burke and Hare infamously killed people to meet the demand for bodies in Edinburgh’s anatomy schools in 1828. But who remembers the man for whom they worked?
The Hidden History of Biology Textbooks
American biology textbooks supposedly became less scientific after the Scopes trial. One scholar argues that this isn't the whole story.
Annie M. Alexander: Paleontologist and Silent Benefactor
An unsung patron of science whose deep pockets and passion for exploring led to the founding of two influential natural history museums.
The “Scientific” Antifeminists of Victorian England
Nineteenth-century biologists employed some outrageous arguments in order to keep women confined to the home.