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Stories

  • Article

Domestic titans

Feeling trapped by the idea that an impenetrable carapace of space trash could surround the planet, Elvia Wilk turned to thoughts of the new worlds still to be revealed here on Earth.

  • Article

The ugly truth about fast fashion

Aja Barber reflects on her relationship with fast fashion, outlines its polluting and destructive effects, and shares the small, personal changes we can make that could help.

  • Article

A history of gestation outside the body

It’s been over 400 years since a Swiss alchemist theorised that foetuses could develop outside the womb. Claire Horn examines incubator technology past and present, and explores the possibilities recent prototypes might bring.

  • Long read

Our complicated love affair with light

Sunlight is essential, but our relationship with artificial light is less clear cut. It expands what’s possible; it also obscures and polices. In this long read, Lauren Collee pits light against night, and reveals the shady places in between.

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Images

  • Types of greenhouse. Engraving, 1751.
  • Types of greenhouse. Coloured engraving.
  • Types of greenhouse. Engraving, c.1750.
  • Four ornamental greenhouse flowers, including coral bush (Templetonia retusa). Coloured lithograph, c. 1848.
  • Botanic Gardens, Oxford: plan of the gardens with details of the gateway and greenhouses. Etching, 1707, after D. Loggan.
  • Botanic Gardens, Oxford: showing the fountain and greenhouses, with a glimpse of Magdalen College behind. Line engraving by J. Le Keux, 1836, after F. Mackenzie.
  • Botanic Garden, Oxford: panoramic view of the greenhouses with a small ornamental detail of the gates and plans. Line engraving by J. Skelton, 1820, after B. Green.
  • Botanic Garden, Oxford: panoramic view of the greenhouses with a small ornamental detail of the gates and plans. Line engraving by J. Skelton, 1820, after B. Green.
  • Zantedeschia aethiopica (L)Spreng. Calla lily, Arum lily. Half hardy annual. Distribution: South Africa. The genus name commemorates Giovanni Zantedeschi (1773-1846) an Italian physician and botanist. Born in Molina he studied medicine in Verona and Padua. He corresponded with the German botanist, Kurt Sprengel, who named the genus Zantedeschia in his honour in 1826, separating it from Calla, where, as C. aethiopica, it had been previously described by Linnaeus. He had broad interests, including the effect of different parts of the spectrum of light on plant growth, reporting in 1843, that red, orange and yellow light are heliotropically inactive. The botanic museum in Molina is dedicated to his memory. Aethiopica, merely means 'African'. The leaves are used as a warm poultice for headaches in ‘muthi’ medicine. It has become an invasive weed in parts of Australia. It was introduced, as a greenhouse plant, to Europe in the mid-17th century, where the long lasting flowers are popular in flower arranging and for weddings and funerals – a curious combination (Oakeley, 2012). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • Adult couple with Down's syndrome
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Catalogue

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