Science Through Time
Short histories that trace an idea from its first spark to the present day.
38 stories
- From a Barrel That Exploded on Purpose to the Red Can on Your Wall: A Short History of the Fire Extinguisher
- From a Pilot Cut Out of His Own Suit to Moonwalks Sewn by a Bra Company: A Short History of the Spacesuit
- From a Polar Bear Fishing in the Thames to the 'World Herd': A Short History of the Zoo
- From a Sticky Weed Named for a Critic to a Beetle Named for Kate Winslet: A Short History of Naming Species
- From Aristotle's Mud to Freud's 400 Eels: A Short History of the Eel Question
- From Lanterns on Two Hills to Mirrors Left on the Moon: A Short History of Measuring the Speed of Light
- From Matches You Lit With Your Teeth to the Safety Match: A Short History of the Match
- From Ringing Church Bells to Lightning-Rod Hats: A Short History of the Lightning Rod
- The City That Piped the Time Through Its Sewers — Until a Flood Stopped Every Clock at Once
- The Woman Who Sold London the Time From a Watch Named Arnold
- From Plato's Night Clock to Pea Shooters at the Window: A Short History of the Alarm Clock
- From a Beach Bonfire to a Cake in a Battery Jar: A Short History of Glass
- The 3,900-Year-Old Fart Joke Scribes Copied in School
- From Baltimore Sewer Gas to the Shroud of Turin: A Short History of Radiocarbon Dating
- From a Dinner Party Inside an Iguanodon to Feathered Raptors: A Short History of Picturing Dinosaurs
- From a Wet Spacesuit to a $23 Million Toilet: A Short History of the Space Toilet
- From a Cargo of Melting Ice to the Kitchen Fridge: A Short History of Refrigeration
- From a Glass Frog Tied to Your Wrist to 98.6: A Short History of the Thermometer
- From a Lion-Headed Throne to the Cochlear Implant: A Short History of the Hearing Aid
- From Crushed Oyster Shells to Nylon: A Short History of the Toothbrush
- From Starving Horses to 'Bicycle Face': A Short History of the Bicycle
- From a Sponge on a Stick to the Flush Toilet: A Short History of the Toilet
- From the Everlasting Staircase to the Home Gym: A Short History of the Treadmill
- The September That Jumped From the 2nd to the 14th
- From Laughing Gas Parties to the Operating Room: A Short History of Anesthesia
- The Angry Customer Complaint That Survived 3,750 Years
- The Cylinder in a Paris Vault That Defined the Kilogram — Until It Started Losing Weight
- From a Milkmaid's Blisters to mRNA: A Short History of the Vaccine
- From Frog Legs to Lithium: A Short History of the Battery
- From Lamb's Blood to Blood Types: A Short History of the Transfusion
- From Mendel's Peas to CRISPR: A Short History of Genetics
- The Astronomer Who Spent Eleven Years at Sea to Watch Venus Cross the Sun — and Missed It Anyway
- The Blank Squares That Predicted Three Undiscovered Elements
- The Self-Taught Carpenter Who Solved the Deadliest Problem in Ocean Navigation
- The Element Discovered on the Sun 27 Years Before Anyone Found It on Earth
- The Experiment So Slow Its Keeper Watched for 52 Years and Never Saw a Single Drop Fall
- The Library Burned by Vesuvius That AI Is Finally Reading
- The Roman Concrete That Heals Its Own Cracks