The scientific pursuits of wartime prime minister Winston Churchill and King George III can teach today’s scientists about the importance of life outside work, reports David Payne.

Winston Churchill at his desk in 1939: a prolific writer, he covered scientific topics as diverse as evolution and fusion power.{credit}Getty Images{/credit}

In October 1939 Britain was just weeks into its prolonged fight against fascism and Nazi Germany when Winston Churchill, then part of the wartime Cabinet, penned an essay about alien life. Astrophysicist Mario Livio’s analyis of the lost essay, published in Nature  last month, garnered global media coverage. According to physics professor and science writer Graham Farmelo, the lost essay reveals a “dazzzling scope of inquiry” that shows he was an “even greater public figure than we thought.” Continue reading →