Aristocracy · Monarchies · Science · Humour
The Daily Mail has published a long article on the Habsburg jaw. Scientists maintain that the dynasty owes its hereditary facial deformity to two centuries of inbreeding among Europe's royal families. The text has outraged our old friend Eduard Habsburg, one of the present-day representatives of the
Cinema · Science
What Was the Battle of Agincourt Really Like? The English king's archers really did cut down the flower of French chivalry. Yet the film misrepresents both the battlefield itself, which really was a field and not hilly terrain, and the fortifications, which are not in the picture at
Cinema · Books · Monarchies · Science
Was There a Plot Against Henry V? According to the storyline shown in "The King", Henry V is pushed towards war by an attempt on his life by the French. In reality, the plot to assassinate Henry V was uncovered on the eve of his attack on France,
Cinema · Books · Monarchies · Science
Henry V is, for the English, one of the best-loved figures of their history and very nearly the champion of screen adaptations, rivalled only by Richard the Lionheart, Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth. But what makes this not especially distinguished, yet so celebrated, ruler so attractive? Talent! And a
Art · London · Museums · Science
The Science Museum in London delighted visitors barely a week ago by opening a new gallery devoted to medicine. The exhibition is enlivened by a remarkable work of art, a bridge between historical eras and the present day: the bronze sculpture "Saint Medicine" by the English artist Eleanor
Observations · Science · Nature
A dog named Laika was the first living creature to leave the planet Earth and find itself in orbit. This happened in November 1957. A tragic story, it must be said: a stray dog picked up off the street met every criterion, from height and weight to straightness of limb,
NB! · Faith · Art · Books · Science
Fludd's Black Square, which is just how the English thinker and philosopher of the 16th and 17th centuries, Robert Fludd, depicted in 1607 the emptiness of the world before its creation. Darkness, the infinite nothing. On all four sides of the square runs the inscription Et sic in
NB! · Archive · Books · Science · Society
NB! · London · Museums · Science · Mores
Museums · Heritage · Science · People
When Galileo's body was exhumed in 1737, 95 years after his death, three fingers, a tooth and one vertebra were removed from the coffin. The vertebra is kept at the University of Padua, where Galileo taught, but the fingers and the tooth vanished for almost a century from
NB! · Archaeology · Geography · Science · Nature
Books · London · Science · Mores · Society
From the middle of the eighteenth century, men were increasingly called upon to assist at childbirth in England: physicians with surgical training and specialised instruments were far more effective than midwives versed in folk medicine. But the fashion provoked a public controversy, fuelled all the more by the fact that