2004 Gallery

Woolacombe & Mortenhoe, 1960

British Rail poster depicting a sunny view of a beach from a hotel balcony. A family gather in the foreground. Artwork by Harry Riley

© NRM/Pictorial Collection

Cosmic microwave background

Cosmic microwave background. Spherical projection of the cosmic microwave background, using all-sky data from the WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe). Since it is a spherical projection, it only shows half the sky. The microwave background is radiation from the beginning of the universe (actually 380, 000 years after its creation) that has been stretched (cooled to around 3 Kelvin) by the expansion of the universe. The colours show the variation in the temperature (then equivalent to density) of the early universe. Denser regions (red, yellow) formed the seeds of galaxies and other structures. Data obtained in 2003

© NASA/WMAP SCIENCE TEAM/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

Illustration of Leonardo da Vincis parachute

First parachute design. Parachute designed and drawn by the Italian inventer Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Leonardo was the first person to suggest using a parachute to slow a person's rate of fall. At lower left is some of the mirror hand- writing that he used to keep his ideas secret. Leonardo devoted many years of research into studying flight and designing potential aircraft. Like many of his projects, the parachute design was never published and the parachute was never actually constructed. After Leonardo's death his notes lay unnoticed in a library until 1796, just a few years after parachutes had been re-invented by Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard

© Sheila Terry/Science Photo Library