Great Debates

In the 18th century the existence of extraterrestrial life went from debatable hypothesis to fundamental tenet of Enlightenment thought.

The Queen of the Night, rendered in clay in ancient Babylon, was evidently an important goddess who enjoyed considerable status – but who is she?

What are stars made of? When a young astronomer upset standard explanations for the formation of the solar system, the establishment told her she was wrong – then stole her findings.

Was the Earth flatter around the poles or the Equator? In 1735 two expeditions set out to settle a matter of national pride.

An earthquake in Chile and the observations of eye-witness Maria Graham caused open hostility among 19th-century geologists.

Where does new life come from? According to one theory that held sway until the 18th century, it’s all been there from the very beginning.

How ancient was ancient Egypt? How old is the world? And what happens when archaeology contradicts the Bible? When the Dendera Zodiac arrived in Paris, these questions exploded into the public sphere.

Eminent doctors and notorious charlatans vied for sick patients to treat in the cut-throat medical marketplace of Georgian England.

John Hutchinson and Isaac Newton were both devout scholars who believed that the natural world and God were inextricably linked. The similarities ended there.

The debate over whether nature or nurture guides who we are is as dependent on politics and ideology as it is on scientific research.