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  • Article

The unearthly children of science fiction’s Cold War

In the 1950s a new figure emerged in British novels, film and television: a disturbing young alien that revealed postwar society’s fear of the unruly power of teenagers.

  • Article

The doctor who challenged the unicorn myth

Our era of fake news and medical misinformation is nothing new. Estelle Paranque relays the thrusts and parries of a 440-year-old row over a magical cure-all, the unicorn horn.

  • Article

Laughing at disaster

If joking around can help us cope when the worst happens, could comedy be a useful way to connect on climate change?

  • Article

On contagion

Reading descriptions of the way humans become infested by parasitic flatworms, Daisy Lafarge experienced painful physical symptoms. Perhaps the very creature she was studying had invaded her body.

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Images

  • Glass retort with stopper. mid 19th C
  • An alchemist applying bellows to a fire beneath a retort. Oil painting by a Neapolitan painter, 18th (?) century.
  • King George III analysing the residue from a large glass retort containing a small figure; representing the English view of Napoleon. Coloured aquatint by T. West, 1803.
  • A chemist and his assistant as "puffers" heating a substance in a retort; representing a theatre critic who "puffs" the actor Joseph Holman at the bidding of his editor. Etching attributed to T. Rowlandson, ca. 1786.
  • Chemistry: stages in the production of ether, showing varous retorts in use on furnaces. Engraving, 17--.
  • A doctor asks how his patient is feeling, the patient (a precocious child) retorts condescendingly. Reproduction of a drawing by C. A. Shepperson, 1921.
  • A plant (Cerinthe retorta Sibth. & Sm.): flowering plant with separate fruit and flower section. Coloured etching by M. Bouchard, 1772.
  • A dowager commenting on a doctor's youth and perhaps inexperience, he retorts that he is learning on children. Wood engraving by G. Wallis-Mills?, 1908.
  • A doctor asking a dealer about horses, the dealer retorts that like doctors you can buy horses at many different prices. Wood engraving by WIH, 1892.
  • A patient asking her doctor his political leanings, he retorts that it varies - depending on who he is treating. Wood engraving after A.T. Smith.
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