Revisiting scientific revolutions, designing ecotoilets and exploring the ornithology of Edward Lear featured in some of the top books and arts reviews and Q&As from 2012. A subscription is required to view this content.

Medicine: Leonardo's anatomy years

A London exhibition will expose the Renaissance master's staggering medical discoveries, which languished unpublished for centuries, explains Martin Clayton.

18 April 2012

Literature: Wonders and ologies

In the week of the Dickens bicentennial, Alice Jenkins explores the literary giant's conflicted take on science.

2 February 2012

Natural history: The wilder side of Edward Lear

As the poet and artist's bicentenary approaches, Robert McCracken Peck celebrates his natural-history legacy.

3 May 2012

Ecodesign: The bottom line

If architecture is 'design for living', one of its greatest challenges is how to live with the masses of waste we excrete. Four pioneers in green sanitation design outline solutions to a dilemma too often shunted down the pan.

14 June 2012

In retrospect: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

David Kaiser marks the 50th anniversary of an exemplary account of the cycles of scientific progress.

12 April 2012

Q&A: Collision creator

Julius von Bismarck is the first artist in residence at the particle-physics laboratory CERN, near Geneva in Switzerland. As he prepares to give the final lecture of his residency, he talks about whipping mountains, hacking photographs and digging into the history of invention.

20 September 2012

In retrospect: Silent Spring

On its 50th anniversary, an exposé of pesticide overuse still stands as a beacon of reason, finds Rob Dunn.

31 May 2012

Q&A: Iceberg imager

Camille Seaman photographs icebergs and storm clouds. With an exhibition of her work opening in January in San Francisco, California, she talks about stalking supercell storms and watching hungry polar bears destroy a bird colony.

6 December 2012

Conservation: Harpoons and heartstrings

A history of cetacean research highlights its precarious place between whaling and politics, finds Philip Hoare.

12 January 2012

Q&A: Jazz experimentalist

Vijay Iyer is a New York jazz pianist who has academic roots in physics and music cognition. As he releases Accelerando — a follow-up to his 2009 world number one jazz album Historicity — he talks about the bodily origins of rhythm, the science of improvisation and the social function of music.

8 March 2012