Articles

Genetics is the study of how genes are transmitted across generations, which includes the genetic information that produces an individual's traits, physical characteristics, and diseases. This recent branch of biology has transformed medicine...

I was recently invited to an archaeological symposium at the site of AlUla in Saudi Arabia. I had known about AlUla since 2018 and seen photographs of the amazing Nabatean tombs from there. A conference was held at AlUla in 2023, but I was...

The Battle of Jutland (31 May to 1 June 1916) was by far the largest naval battle of the First World War (1914-18). The only time the bulk of the British and German fleets faced each other, the battle occurred in the North Sea south of Norway...

Khaybar, Tayma, Dadan, Qurh, and AlUla Old Town are sites situated in the AlUla region of Saudi Arabia, an area on the ancient incense trade routes. Khaybar and Tayma are both multiperiod oasis sites, whilst Dadan was once the capital of...

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (8-21 May 1864) was a pivotal engagement in the Overland Campaign, a major Union offensive during the final year of the American Civil War (1861-1865). The battle saw some of the most intense fighting...

WWI saw the birth of an entirely new form of combat: lone men engaging the enemy in aerial dogfights. The victors became heroes back home, but this was as deadly an occupation as it was an exhilarating one. One bullet, an engine or structural...

The structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was discovered in 1953 by two molecular biologists, James Dewey Watson (1928-2025) and Francis Harry Compton Crick (1916-2004). Watson and Crick were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine...

The First World War (1914-18) witnessed an arsenal of new weapons as all sides were desperate to gain an advantage, particularly in the static trench warfare of the Western Front. There were some old tried-and-tested weapons like the Lee-Enfield...

The Battle of the Wilderness (5-6 May 1864) was the opening engagement of the Overland Campaign, a major Union offensive conducted during the final year of the American Civil War (1861-1865). It saw the Union Army of the Potomac, under Ulysses...

The Sandbar Fight of 19 September 1827 made James 'Jim' Bowie famous, as well as the Bowie knife – less than 10 years before the Alamo (where he fell alongside the heroes William Barret Travis and David Crockett) – but it was essentially...