Publications
Books and book chapters
Forthcoming (2009)
I have been commissioned by Cambridge University Press to prepare a new scholarly edition of Darwin’s Origin of Species, to be published in 2009 (to coincide with the Darwin bicentenary and the Origin’s sesquicentenary). The edition will include: a substantial introductory essay (c.20,000 words); explanatory and biographical notes; a chronology of Darwin’s life and times; an appendix on textual variations over the six editions; a comprehensive bibliography; and, researching new illustrations.
2008
Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the practices of Victorian science. Published by the University of Chicago Press in 2008. The book uses the career of Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) to explore three of the major themes in the historiography of Victorian science: the reception of Darwinism; the consequences of empire; and, the emergence of a scientific profession. Each of its nine thematic chapters looks at a particular scientific practice – such as travelling, classifying or writing – and examines its role in Hooker’s work and its broader significance as a way of placing science within the rapidly developing social world of nineteenth-century Britain.
2007
A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology: the animals and plants who taught us the facts of life. An introduction to the history of biology, aimed at both undergraduate and general audiences, focussed on the experimental organisms which were central to the understanding of sexual reproduction, inheritance and genetics. This will cover a chronological range from the early nineteenth century to the present day, and will include current work on Arabidopsis, Zebra fish and OncoMouse. Published by William Heinemann, May 2007 and by Harvard University Press, November 2007.
2005
‘Classifying Sciences: Systematics and Status in mid-Victorian Natural History’, in Daunton, M. (ed.) The Organisation of Knowledge in Victorian Britain (British Academy/Oxford University Press): 61–85.
2003
‘Darwin on generation, pangenesis and sexual selection’. In J. Hodge & G. Radick (eds.) Cambridge Companion to Darwin (Cambridge University Press): 69–91.
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Articles in peer-reviewed journals
2001
‘“From having no Herbarium”. Local knowledge vs. metropolitan expertise: Joseph Hooker’s Australasian correspondence with William Colenso and Ronald Gunn’. Pacific Science, Vol. 55, No. 4: 343–358.
‘“The Realm of Hard Evidence”: novelty, persuasion and collaboration in botanical cladistics’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. Vol. 32, No. 2 (June 2001): 343–360.
[2000
‘A Garden Enclosed: Botanical barter in Sydney, 1818–1839’ British Journal for the History of Science. Vol. 33, No. 118, September 2000: 313–334.
1997
‘The Evolving Museum’, Public Understanding of Science, 6 (1997): 185–206.
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Other articles
2008
‘Joseph Hooker: a philosophical botanist’. Journal of Biosciences (vol. 33, no. 2, June 2008): 163–169.
2006
‘Wallace Redux’, essay review of Ross Slotten The Heretic in Darwin’s Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace and Martin Fichman An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace. In Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy, Volume 44, Number 2, June 2006: 209-218.
2004
‘Joseph Dalton Hooker’, entry for the New Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.
Lightman, B. (ed.) Dictionary of Nineteenth Century British Scientists, (Thoemmes Press). Entries on: Joseph Dalton Hooker, Charles Kingsley, William Colenso, Arthur Henfrey, Ronald Campbell Gunn, Edward Newman and Thomas Thomson.
2003
‘Escaping Darwin’s Shadow’. Essay review of books on Alfred Russel Wallace (Shermer In Darwin’s Shadow, Berry Infinite Tropics, Raby Alfred Russel Wallace, Wilson The Forgotten Naturalist, Camerini The Alfred Russel Wallace Reader and Quammen The Song of the Dodo). Reviewed in Journal of the History of Biology, Summer 2003, Volume 36, Issue 2: 385-403.
2001
‘Joseph Hooker: the making of a botanist’. Endeavour. Vol. 25, No. 1, March 2001: 3–7.
2000
‘What’s afoot at the Museum?’. Survey review, Metascience, Vol. 9, No. 1, March 2000: 76–85
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Reviews
2007
'Evolution Myths': Review of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Vol. 14 and 15, together with Peckham (ed.) Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species: a variorum edition. Reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement. No. 5424. 16 March 2007: 3–4.
Review of Brian Ogilvie The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe. Reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement. No. 5418. 2 Feb 2007: 27.
2006
Review of Felix Driver & Luciana Martins Tropical Visions in an Age of Empire. Isis, 97 (4), December 2006: 749.
Steven Freer (ed.) Linnaeus’ Philosophia Botanica. Reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, No. 5373, 24 March: 3–4.
Nancy E. Hoffmann and John C. Van Horne (eds.) America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram 1699–1777. Reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, No. 5368, 17 February: 27.
2005
Martin Brookes Extreme Measures: the dark visions and bright ideas of Francis Galton. Reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement. No. 5321, 25 March: 29.
2004
Marek Kohn A Reason for Everything: Evolution and the English Imagination. Reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, No. 5305, 3 December: 12.
Frank N. Egerton Hewett Cottrell Watson: Victorian plant ecologist and evolutionist. Reviewed in Journal of the History of Biology, 37: 393–395.
Regardfully Yours: Selected Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, Vol. II., ed. Home et al. Reviewed in British Journal for the History of Science. Vol. 37, No. 133, June 2004: 217-219.
Martin Fichman Evolutionary Theory and Victorian Culture. Reviewed in Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 79, No. 2: 196.
David E. Allen, Naturalists and Society. Reviewed in British Journal for the History of Science. Vol. 37, No. 132, March 2004: 108–110.
John and Mary Gribbin Fitzroy and Peter Nichols Evolution’s Captain. Reviewed in Times Literary Supplement, No. 5268, 19 March 2004: 32.
2003
Burkhardt et al. The Correspondence of Charles Darwin (vols. 11, 12 & 13). Reviewed in Times Literary Supplement, No. 5251, 21 November 2003: 3–4.
Michael T. Ghiselin and Alan E. Leviton (eds.) Cultures and Institutions of Natural History. Reviewed in Journal of the History of Earth Sciences Society, Vol. 21, no.2: 218–219.
Suzanne Le-May Sheffield Revealing New Worlds: Three Victorian Women Naturalists. Reviewed in Times Literary Supplement, No. 5211, 14 February 2003: 27.
2002
Peter H Hoffenberg An Empire on Display: English, Indian, and Australian Exhibitions from the Crystal Palace to the Great War. Reviewed in Metascience, Vol. 11, No. 3: 378–381.
SM Walters and EA Stow Darwin’s Mentor: John Stevens Henslow, 1796–1861. Reviewed in Metascience, Vol. 11, No. 3: 426–429.
James E. Strick Sparks of Life: Darwinism and the Victorian debates over spontaneous generation. Reviewed in Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 77, No. 1, March 2002: 43–44.
2001
Randal Keynes Annie’s Box: Charles Darwin, his Daughter and Human Evolution. Reviewed in Times Literary Supplement, No. 5131, 3 August 2001: 10.
2000
Andrew Brown The Darwin Wars. Reviewed in Science and Public Policy, Vol. 27, February 2000.
Home, et al. (eds.) Regardfully Yours: Selected Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller. Volume 1: 1840–1859). Metascience, vol. 9, No. 1: 76–85.
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Broadcasting
2005
‘Extinction’. WBEZ Chicago Public Radio’s Odyssey discussion program. May 6, 2005 (available online NB: you will need the free RealPlayer to listen to this).
2004
‘The Plant Hunters: Joseph Hooker’. Feature on BBC Radio 4’s program Gardener’s Question Time. Broadcast 14 March.
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