Wes Phillips

Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy gives us a fascinating overview of Islam's long and variable engagement with science. "The question I want to pose—perhaps as much to myself as to anyone else—is this: With well over a billion Muslims and extensive material resources, why is the Islamic world disengaged from science and the process of creating new knowledge?"

Or we'll force you to listen to Mick Jagger solo albums.

The Beeb has an animated "front line" Western Front feature. Its only weakness is that it is antiseptic, which that war was definitely not.

Gareth Rees calculates that the British archers at Agincourt might have rained 50,000 arrows a minute for a solid eight minutes onto the French. So if you were snorting derisively at the title's combination of "medieval" and "physics," consider this: Agincourt was, essentially, the first battle where conventional cavalry tactics met the equivalent of the machine gun.

Bagheera is a past mistress at the art of cat fu, the ability to comfortably inhabit spaces too small for her to fit into.

Rupert Christiansen sings the praises of hymns.