Science and technology

Gulielma Lister became the world's leading expert on slime moulds (Illustration by Rachel Dickins)

Gulielma Lister: the female botanist who became the queen of slime moulds

A young woman sat in front of a mirror applies lipstick, 1967

The price of beauty: the dangerous cosmetics used until the 20th century

Ada Lovelace

Ada Lovelace: a visionary of computing

Portrait of John Dee

John Dee: Elizabethan 007, scientist, magician and spy

From transfusions of lambs’ blood to tooth replacements, Paul Craddock chronicles the strange history of transplant surgery

Transplant surgery: an eye-opening history

Vanguard-class submarine HMS Vigilant, the top above water

Britain’s nuclear deterrent: a brief history

Workers lower the bodywork of a Standard Vanguard car onto its chassis in a factory

Britain’s motor city: how Coventry’s car industry roared to greatness – then went into reverse

Thomas Crapper started a plumbing business in Chelsea in 1861 and pioneered some of the most revolutionary designs of sanitary engineering in the 19th century – but he didn't 'invent' the toilet

The legend of Thomas Crapper, the man who didn’t invent the toilet

Scientists Frederic Joliot-Curie and his wife, Irene, at work in their Paris laboratory in December 1932. The couple were among a wide-ranging group of scientists whose work paved the way for the atomic bomb. (Photo by Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images)

Second World War

Hiroshima: the race to the atomic bomb

Representations of digits from the ninth century, 11th century and the present day

Digital revolution: the evolution of Hindu-Arabic numerals

George Westinghouse, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla

Edison, Westinghouse and Tesla: the history behind The Current War

Dr David Clarke explains how the idea of extra-terrestrials in mysterious flying saucers developed from its origins in the Cold War to become an enduring modern myth. (Image by Getty Images)

The history and mystery of UFOs

Joseph Bazalgette, a civil engineer who planned a groundbreaking new drainage system to serve London

Joseph Bazalgette: how the man who transformed London paved the way for your loo

On the evening of 13 March thousands of people in Phoenix, Arizona, and surrounding areas see a triangular formation of lights drifting above the city. Fife Symington, the governor of Arizona at the time, was one of the witnesses and he described the UFO as “otherworldly”. This image shows something similar to what was reported at the time. (Photo by Alamy)

A brief history of UFOs: top 10 sightings & timeline

A UFO photographed in New Mexico by a government employee. The image was released by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization after careful study. It is unknown what the image shows.(Photo by Getty Images)

How UFOs conquered the world – without firing a shot