Science
A short history of flash photography
All photography requires light, but the light used in flash photography is unique — shocking, intrusive and abrupt. It’s quite…
What can we learn from Jeremy Bentham’s pickled head?
Under the central dome of UCL — an indoor crossroads where hordes of students come and go on their way…
Perception vs objective reality
I hate to tell you this, but every time you watch television you are being duped. In fact there are…
Oh brave new gender-fluid world…
Later this year, the Advertising Standards Authority will reveal to the world their list of rules designed to wipe out…
Frater, ave atque vale
As his obituaries pointed out, my brother David made a name for himself with his unrideable bicycle; his ‘perpetual motion’…
Starting block
Conor McPherson’s new play is set in dust-bowl Minnesota in 1934. We’re in a fly-blown boarding house owned by skint,…
The slow death of environmentalism
Would you describe yourself as an ‘environmentalist’? I would, mainly to annoy greenies, but also because it’s true. If your…
Steve Jones’s chaotic theory of history
‘They fuck you up, your mum and dad.’ Philip Larkin’s most famous line has appeared in the Spectator repeatedly, and…
The 17th century painter who hacked her way through Suriname in search of insects
Maria Sibylla Merian was a game old bird of entrepreneurial bent, with an overwhelming obsession with insects. Born in Frankfurt…
Why Joan Bakewell must be right about anorexia
You can always tell when a public figure has said something with the ring of truth about it by the…
Thin air and frayed tempers
Born in New South Wales in 1888, George Finch climbed Mount Canobolas as a boy, unleashing, in the thin air,…
Alexander Humboldt: a great explorer rediscovered
The Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt was once the most famous man in Europe bar Napoleon. And if you judge…
John Dee thought he could talk to angels using medieval computer technology
John Dee liked to talk to spirits but he was no loony witch, says Christopher Howse
You can’t forget what Will Self says - even if you wish you could
It lasted for just a few seconds but was such a graphic illustration of the statistics behind the bombing campaign…
How Technicolor conquered cinema
Peter Hoskin celebrates Technicolor’s 100th birthday
John Paul Stapp: the fastest man on earth, who saved millions
There’s a moment in Craig Ryan’s spectacular biography of John Paul Stapp — the maverick American Air Force doctor who,…
Dreaming of bringing your favourite pet back to life? Soon it could be reality
The super-rich are already bringing beloved dogs and horses back to life. Soon the rest of us will be able to do it too
Nicole Kidman is upstaged by everyone - even the set: Photograph 51 at the Noel Coward reviewed
Michael Grandage’s latest show is about an old snap. Geneticists regard the X-ray of the hydrated ‘B’ form of DNA…
Why I’m sick of slippery-slope arguments
Good laws and valuable scientific discoveries are being blocked with the laziest argument in the book
Letters: Booming churches, brilliant Swedes and who gets the VC
Growing congregations Sir: I would like to take issue with Damian Thompson (‘Crisis of faith’, 13 June) and his assertions…
My new plan: let’s pay people benefits for not moving here
Yet another exciting discovery from the world of Islamic science. As you are probably aware, Islamic culture has always paid…
Moving heaven and earth: Galileo’s subversive spyglass
We live in an age of astronomical marvels. Last year Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft made a daring rendezvous with the comet…
As a republican, I used to look forward to Charles III. Now I’m scared
The Prince of Wales has shown himself too vain to accept the limits of constitutional monarchy
Radio 4’s War and Peace: almost as good as the book
To have listened to Radio 4’s marathon ten-hour adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace as it was being broadcast on…
We're great and baboons are losers: this week's lesson from Brian Cox
Anybody feeling a bit depressed about the shortcomings of humanity could do worse than watch Brian Cox’s new series Human…
