Forum - A World of ideas

Vikings and their quest for silver

Vikings were addicted to silver: they collected it as coins, as ingots, arm-rings, jewellery. On...

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Fertiliser and poison gas: The legacy of chemist Fritz Haber

German chemist Fritz Haber's discovery of how to turn atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia is seen...

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Emperor Nero: Bad boy of Ancient Rome

Nero fiddled while Rome burned, didn’t he? At least, that’s what the history books tell us....

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Mirror Mirror on the wall: The history of the looking glass

For the Ancient Egyptians they were seen as receptacles for the soul, for the Aztecs they were...

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Kwame Nkrumah: Ghana’s Pan-African idealist

Kwame Nkrumah was considered by some as a visionary hero who urged would-be leaders in Africa to...

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The Truman Doctrine: Beginnings of the Cold War

President Harry Truman's address to the United States Congress, and the world, in March 1947 is...

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Margaret Fuller: Early feminist and war correspondent

In in her 1843 essay The Great Lawsuit, the American journalist and early feminist Margaret...

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Money: from coin to cryptocurrency

From Mesopotamian loan records which are over four thousand years old to the cryptocurrencies of...

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Pinocchio: The real story of the mischievous wooden puppet

Pinocchio is a cultural icon. He is the wooden puppet who can talk and walk. A cheerful...

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The invention of numbers

Try and imagine a world without numbers. Telling people how many siblings you have, counting your...

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Vincent van Gogh: The struggling artist

The Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh is one of the most influential painters in...

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Franz Liszt: Hungarian pianist and painter in sound

A proud Hungarian by birth, Franz Liszt was a pioneer both in his piano playing and in his...

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Joseph Heller's Catch 22: A novel of twisted logic and absurd bureaucracy

‘That’s some Catch, that Catch 22’. It’s a novel that gave rise to a new term in the English...

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Sofya Kovalevskaya: The eventful life of a maths pioneer

If you were a woman in the mid-19th century, some universities might let you attend public...

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Machu Picchu: Secrets of a forgotten city

The ancient Inca town Machu Picchu is now the most visited tourist attraction in Peru – and yet...

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Pleasure and pain: The philosophy of Jeremy Bentham

How do you approach the decisions you make in life? Do you think about them in terms of the...

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Copper: From mining to microprocessors

Copper is a metal that has been with us since the dawn of civilisation. The Romans used it to...

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Writer Agatha Christie: Murder and mystery

Agatha Christie put her decision to become a writer down to a lack of education and a capacity...

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Boudica, warrior queen

Boudica, also known as Boadicea, was a member of Iron Age aristocracy in Roman occupied England...

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Harry Houdini: Escape artist and showman

Harry Houdini’s story is the classic American tale of an immigrant who from impoverished...

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