Architecture · London · Science · Education
Contrary to rumour, Isaac Newton has nothing to do with these moon dials at Queens' College. The curious panel appeared on a Cambridge wall in 1743, and to tell the time from it one did indeed need a university education. That is precisely why moon dials never became as
Books · London · Heritage · Education · Society
Not long ago a plaque was put up in Oxford to commemorate those who worked in slave conditions on the Codrington plantations in the West Indies. It is the work of a group that seeks to publicise Oxford's colonial past. In 2017 its activists demanded that the statues
Observations · Science · Education
Thomson's tube is a glass vacuum vessel which the English scientist Joseph Thomson used in his experiment on the properties of cathode rays. In my day this was covered in the school physics course, and attention was usually drawn to the fact that the cathode-ray tubes of
Museums · Science · Education · People
An anatomist's head is precisely what one expects to find in a museum of science. Antonio Scarpa, the foremost surgeon of his day, left behind neither lawful heirs nor any well-wishers after death, and in the absence of a last will his assistant took it upon himself
Observations · Science · Education · People
Natalia Ivanovna Basovskaya, medievalist, popularizer of science, author of many books and a wonderful human being, has passed away. Until her last years Natalia Ivanovna headed our department at RSUH. Students and teachers held her in great respect and, I shall not be afraid to say, admiration. Her learning, her
Geography · Maps · Monarchies · Museums · Education · Paris
This colossal globe, 1.3 metres in diameter, was made by the renowned geographer Edme Mentelle in 1788 at the commission of Louis XVI for the education of the Dauphin. The outer sphere opens along the prime meridian, which at that time ran through the Canary Islands; on its reverse
Monarchies · Science · Education · People
The first obstetric mannequin was designed by Angélique Du Coudray, celebrated for her book on the fundamentals of midwifery and her vast experience of training young midwives. Under the influence of Du Coudray and her petition, the decision to deny women professional training in obstetrics was reversed. After this success,
Books · Education · People · Humour
John Milton, author of "Paradise Lost" and Foreign Secretary in Cromwell's government, was known during his student years at Cambridge (Christ's College) as the Lady of Christ's: he was long-haired, pale and languid, and sat under a tree in the Fellows&
Archive · Education · Society
In the 1920s, among other things, the word "class" was abolished in secondary schools as a bourgeois survival. Classes came to be called groups
NB! · Observations · Education · Humour
Dropped in at the university. In principle, that is all one needs to know about higher education in Russia.
Archive · Moscow · Education · Society
In 1953 a student of the Gnessin State Institute of Music and Pedagogy, Kogan, wrote a sinfonietta as his diploma piece, and on examination it emerged that it was built upon the national anthem of Israel. This became the occasion for a further investigation, in the course of which it
In the Press · Books · Observations · Education · People
Sarah Bond, historian, lecturer at the University of Iowa and contributor to the American Forbes, has written a short piece on the Black classicist of the eighteenth century Francis Williams. According to her, this scholar, a native of Jamaica, was known for his knowledge of mathematics and his mastery of