Isaac Newton investigating light

Science and technology

George Westinghouse, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla

Edison, Westinghouse and Tesla: the history behind The Current War

The history and mystery of UFOs

Joseph Bazalgette, a civil engineer who planned a groundbreaking new drainage system to serve London

Joseph Bazalgette: how the man who transformed London paved the way for your loo

UFO history10 top sightings and a timeline

A UFO photographed in New Mexico by a government employee. The image was released by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization after careful study. It is unknown what the image shows.(Photo by Getty Images)

How UFOs conquered the world – without firing a shot

An aerial view of Tahiti

Jeanne Baret: the first known woman to circumnavigate the globe

Alan Turing

Second World War

Your guide to Alan Turing: the man, the enigma

The rise and fall of Britain’s motor city

In their own words: the team behind Apollo 11 describe the 1969 mission to the Moon

Sending the first man into space

Da Vinci's sketch 'The Vitruvian Man'. Da Vinci's talents ranged from anatomy to military engineering, and many of his innovations were not explored further for several centuries. (Photo by: Photo12/UIG via Getty Images)

Your guide to Leonardo da Vinci: his life, inventions and milestones in his career

Ammonite and the real fossil hunter Mary Anning

Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) and Charlotte Murchison (Saoirse Ronan) in Francis Lee's new film 'Ammonite'. (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate UK / See-Saw Films)

The real history behind Ammonite

Science is helping to reveal new information about life in the Viking Age

Vikings under the microscope: what can science tell us about Viking life?

Professor Stephen Hawking in his office at the University of Cambridge, 2003

History heroBobby Seagull chooses Stephen Hawking (1942–2018)

Mary Anning was an extremely prolific fossil hunter

Mary Anning: the woman who hunted dinosaurs

Spitfires under construction at the Vickers Supermarine works in Southampton, around 1940

The difficult birth of the Spitfire – and how the WW2 fighter almost missed the battle of Britain

The space race: everything you wanted to know

The space race: everything you wanted to know

How oceans shaped human civilisation

Edward Jenner performs a vaccination, in an 1802 cartoon that lampoons the notion that being vaccinated will turn you into a cow

The race for a cure: how we found vaccines for 4 of history's most dangerous diseases

Charles Darwin and the Beagle: how the voyage transformed our understanding of the world

History heroAndrew Marr chooses Charles Darwin (1809–82)

George Washington Carver in a laboratory

History heroGillian Burke chooses George Washington Carver (c1864–1943)

Alfred Nobel (Bettmann/Getty Images)

The history of the Nobel Prizes

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin vs God: did the 'Origin of Species' cause a clash between church and science?

War and society: a tangled relationship

Map of the universe, miniature from The Tales of Luqman, Arabic manuscript, 1583. (Photo by Getty Images)

Ingenious medieval science

Chemist Marie Curie (1867–1934) in her laboratory. She shared a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre for their work in radioactivity. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Marie Curie: the woman who stirred up science

Dr Edward Jenner, a British physician, performing his first vaccination on James Phipps, a boy of eight, in 1796. (Photo by Getty Images)

The history of vaccination: from Edward Jenner to anti-vaxxers

A near-contemporary depiction of the 14th-century English monk, mathematician and astronomer Richard of Wallingford. Monks were among the leading scientific practitioners during the medieval period. (Photo by Bridgeman)

The genius of medieval science: from medicine to mechanical clocks