Forum - A World of ideas

Sailing by the stars: The pioneering voyages of David Lewis

David Lewis was of one of the most remarkable nautical explorers of modern times. In the...

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Inside the mind of crime writer Patricia Highsmith

Patricia Highsmith was one of the most successful suspense writers of the 20th century. Known...

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Ibn Sina: The Persian polymath

Over a thousand years ago in the city of Bukhara in modern-day Uzbekistan, a young man was...

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The Panama Canal: the real story behind the engineering triumph

Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal has long been regarded as a triumph of American ingenuity, a...

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Ida Pfeiffer: 19th century globetrotter

Ida Pfeiffer's desire to see the world was like many childhood fantasies - destined to remain...

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Rain or shine? A short history of the weather forecast

How did we get from not having any reliable way of predicting the weather just 150 years ago, to...

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Emile Berliner, inventor of the gramophone

A young immigrant to the USA who started out working in a draper's shop, Emile Berliner ended up...

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Tracing the roots of ancient trees

Have you ever sat against the trunk of a large old tree, looked up into its canopy and wondered...

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The Wizard of Oz: A homegrown American fairy tale

The Wizard of Oz is best known as one of the most watched films of all time, or as one of its...

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Falconry: The history of hunting with birds of prey

The practice of hunting with birds of prey is thought to stretch back thousands of years. In...

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Aramaic: an imperial language without an empire

Aramaic is a language that for some three thousand years facilitated the exchange of ideas across...

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X-rays: New ways of seeing

The discovery of X-rays by the German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895 was nothing short of...

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Machiavelli, master of power

Over five hundred years ago, dismissed diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli produced his most famous...

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The birth of the modern car

The motor car is a feature of contemporary life the world over but when and where did motor...

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Ukulele - a history of Hawaii's national instrument

Throughout its 130-year-old history, the ukulele has often been underrated – for many, this tiny...

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Tadeusz Kosciuszko, groundbreaking fort builder

The American president Thomas Jefferson called Tadeusz Kosciuszko ‘as pure a son of liberty as I...

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The census: A snapshot of life

Anyone who has ever researched their family tree will have most likely come across the census,...

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Unravelling the history of knitting

Like many traditional domestic crafts, knitting has experienced a huge surge in popularity in the...

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One Hundred Years of Solitude: The story of Latin America

Considered to be one of literature’s supreme achievements, One Hundred Years of Solitude by the...

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Rabindranath Tagore: The Bard of Bengal

So prodigious was the polymath Rabindranath Tagore, there’s a saying in Bengal that one lifetime...

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