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...history of comet exploration that has added to our knowledge of these icy dirtballs. Comets are usually just a few kilometres across and consist of a mixture of ice, carbon-based material and rock dust. A comet can develop a spectacular million kilometre-long tail of gas and dust when its elongated orbit brings it close to the sun. The warmth of the sun vaporises water,...

...history of logarithms exemplifies well a remark which the historian Clifford Truesdell has made in another context: ‘the simple ideas are the hardest to achieve; simplicity does not come of itself but must be created’ (his full comment is linked below). Napier and Briggs had to work hard to create even the ‘simple’ major logarithm property that Clifford...