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The Day the Universe Changed is a ten-part documentary television series presented by science historian James Burke. The series tells a series of stories of how specific scientific and technological advances have shaped the Western way of life. The series posits that when one's view of the universe changes, the universe itself effectively changes. The series' primary focus is on the effect of advances in science and technology on western philosophy. The title comes from the philosophical idea that the universe essentially only exists as you perceive it through what you know; therefore, if you change your perception of the universe with new knowledge, you have essentially changed the universe itself. To illustrate this concept, James Burke tells the various stories of important scientific discoveries and technological advances and how they fundamentally altered how western civilization perceives the world. The series runs in roughly chronological order, from around the beginning of the Middle Ages to the present.

"The CHSSP is proud to introduce our third Blueprint unit: Sites of Encounter in the Medieval World, funded through the generous support of the Social Science Research Council and the British Council.  Drawing on new historical scholarship about the Mediterranean world, maritime technology transfers, travel narratives and multicultural trade cities, the unit is framed around the investigation question:  How did sites of encounter change the medieval world?"

A third of Europe's population died over four years due to the Black Death. But was it really spread by rats and fleas? Could it have been caused by a virus? And what has that got to do with the modern-day spread of HIV?

"Barney Sloane, author of The Black Death in London, said: "An emergency cemetery is a really uncommon find: they were open for a very short while in response to a disease that wiped out 60% of London in months. "They give us a snapshot of the health, lifestyle and demographic make up of London - and since the plague killed indiscriminately there should be a good cross-section.""

"This 1996 video demonstrates the use of neutron activation analysis to help determine the provenance (origin) of a fragment of medieval sculpture at The Cloisters, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. For more information about this process and a database of samples, visit The Limestone Sculpture Provenance Project "

The Black Death of the Middle Ages was a truly devastating pandemic - a pandemic being the Military-Industrial Full Blown Version of an epidemic. In the mid-1300s, the Black Death killed at least one third of the European population, so it was truly horrible. So most people think that the Black Death began in Europe - but it didn't.

The Black Death that decimated populations in Europe and elsewhere during the middle of the 14th century may not have been a blindly indiscriminate killer as previously believed. An analysis of 490 skeletons from a London cemetery for Black Death victims shows the infection did not affect everyone equally, researchers say.

"Evidence from skulls in east London shows plague had to have been airborne to spread so quickly"

"The Day the Universe Changed is a ten-part documentary television series presented by science historian James Burke. The series tells a series of stories of how specific scientific and technological advances have shaped the Western way of life."

"This free interactive cultural and learning app will be of interest to anyone interested in Tudor history, cultural research, e-learning, art history, or the town of Thetford. It was created by a joint team from the University of Leicester, Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, English Heritage, Oxford University and Yale Center for British Art. It stems from a 3-year project applying space science technology to art historical monuments."

Interactive Map

Bringing life to Muslim Heritage Discover 1000 years of missing history and explore the fascinating Muslim contribution to present day Science, Technology, Arts and Civilisation.

"The crusades were arguably the greatest migration event that took place in medieval Europe. In the 12th and 13th centuries, hundreds of thousands of Europeans travelled to the eastern Mediterranean on military campaigns, pilgrimage and to trade. "The crusades are often blamed for the spread of disease during the medieval period," explained Mitchell, whose work was funded by the British Academy. "But only limited research has investigated which diseases might have been spread, in which direction, eastwards or westwards, and what impact this may have had upon the endemic patterns of disease.""

The open source tool turns the vast history of the universe -- 13.8 billion years of information -- into an interactive, visual timeline. Features enable users to zoom in and out as they explore curated content about, for example, the history of life on Earth, extinction of the dinosaurs, or causes of World War I. Users also can author and share their own timelines about specific events or eras.

"presentations given at the annual Medieval Academy of America/Medieval Association of the Pacific conference, University of California Los Angeles, April 10-12, 2014"

ScienceDaily (Aug. 29, 2011) - A team of German and Canadian scientists has shown that today's plague pathogen has been around at least 600 years.

In the time before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, a cooler central Pacific Ocean has been connected with drought conditions in Europe and North America that may be responsible for famines and the disappearance of cliff dwelling people in the American West.

Reading from his latest book, the second volume of Great Tales From English History, Robert Lacey paints a gruesome picture of the plague in Britain and tells the tale of the heroic village of Eyam.

" tools were sometimes attached to manuscripts, such as a disk, dial or knob, or even a complete scientific instrument. Such 'add-ons' were usually mounted onto the page, extending the book's primary function as an object that one reads, turning it into a piece of hardware."