James Vincent

Just six elements​ are always necessary for the formation of life as we know it: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. Collectively, they are known by the clumsy, vaguely pharaonic acronym CHNOPS (though I prefer the more memorable SPONCH) and together they comprise 99 per cent of human body mass. Of these six ingredients, phosphorus is the least abundant and the most...

Several years ago​ at a party I met a man who claimed that he navigated London using a compass. Fed up of following directions on his phone, he had bought a handsome, waterproof instrument and fixed it to the handlebars of his bike. Before setting off he would check the address of his destination and take a bearing; then he would wend his way through street and alley. Doing this had, he...

At eight o’clock​ on Christmas morning 2021, guards at Windsor Castle discovered an intruder in the grounds. Wearing a homemade mask and carrying a loaded crossbow, 19-year-old Jaswant Chail had scaled the castle’s perimeter using a nylon rope ladder. When approached by armed officers, he told them: ‘I am here to kill the queen.’ Chail was arrested without further...

The legend​ goes like this. In the spring of 1562, the 16-year-old prince Don Carlos of Asturias, grandson of the Holy Roman Emperor and heir to the Castilian throne, lay dying. The prince had been chasing a maid down a flight of stairs when he fell and hit the back of his head. He was taken to bed, weak and feverish, and his condition quickly deteriorated. His wound became infected, his...

It’s​ a truism that the phone in your pocket today is more powerful than the computer Nasa used to land humans on the moon in 1969. But the comparison isn’t as straightforward as it appears. First, raw power isn’t everything. Yes, your phone is speedier than the Apollo Guidance Computer – many millions of times faster – but Nasa’s machines were built with...