Scientists who went to war

08:00 22 June 2012

Like necessity, war breeds invention, so it is not surprising that many great scientists and engineers have made significant contributions to warfare

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Painting, sculpture and architecture were not the only things flourishing in Renaissance Italy. Warring city states made it a hotbed for the art of war, too, and Leonardo da Vinci applied his creative talents to designing war machines for his patron, the duke of Milan. Very few of his military inventions were ever realised in his lifetime, but they included a giant crossbow and a scythed chariot, as well as precursors to the tank and the machine gun. Here is a scale model of his multi-gun war machine.

(Image: Mimmo Frassineti/Rex Features)

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