Mankind's means and uses of communication, individual and mass, have changed utterly-and changed the world NO REVOLUTIONS in technology have as visibly marked the human condition as those in transport. Moving goods and people, they have opened con… more »

The western world thinks marriage should spring from love and will lead to the nuclear family. Yet even in the West these are pretty recent notions THE past 25 years have seen an unprecedented burst of agonising in western society about the collap… more »

The body and its treatment Medicine has changed a lot over the past 1,000 years. But it has also stayed the same a lot IN SICKNESS, as in health, people have always been touchy about their private parts. Genital disorders such as testicular swe… more »

1860 Garibaldi's thousand THEY were a thousand, roughly (1,027? 1,044? 1,089? The records disagree), the redshirts whom Giuseppe Garibaldi led from Genoa in May 1860. Against the odds, they conquered the mezzogiorno, the Italian south, and opened… more »

No endeavour in history has extended the frontiers of human understanding as much as science has. And the job is not over yet TWO of the most profound changes in the intellectual landscape that a time traveller from 999 would notice are that the w… more »

ALL the best inventions have a legendary “light bulb” moment. James Watt’s is supposed to have been when he saw the lid of his kettle rattling. It was then, so the story goes, that he realised that steam pressure could be harnessed to d… more »