How to eat a hedgehog
A. Seba, 1734Listen to the audio version I’ve always been interested and curious about how, as country people, we used to eat from the … Continue
The case for direct water power
Traditional Flour Mill of Kashmir via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0For the better part of two thousand years, water did its work without an … Continue
The hidden cost of your electric hob
Fireless cooker: Museum Rotterdam / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SAAn electric glass-top hob looks like the sensible modern choice: heat at the touch of a … Continue
Heating people, not houses
Wooden stoof: Museum Rotterdam / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0For most of human history, nobody tried to warm a whole room. Central heating shapes … Continue
Horse chestnut laundry liquid
Every autumn, conkers fall in their thousands. We gather them, turn them over in our hands, admire that polished mahogany sheen, perhaps slip one … Continue
Tree asymmetry & the tick effect
We tend to recognise a tree by its leaves, or perhaps by the texture of its bark. This time, stand back and consider its … Continue