Section

Science & Medicine

Discovery, error and the history of understanding the world

It is one of history’s favourite jokes about the past. It is also one of the most carefully manufactured myths of the nineteenth century.

Nov 14, 2026 · 3 min read

The deadliest influenza pandemic in modern history was named for the country that talked about it, not the one that started it.

Nov 11, 2026 · 2 min read

Ignaz Semmelweis showed that washing hands saved mothers’ lives, and was driven out of medicine for saying so.

Nov 7, 2026 · 2 min read

The truth about his trial is stranger than the legend: a friend of the Pope, a bad temper and a book that insulted the wrong person.

Nov 4, 2026 · 2 min read