Upcoming Event - If you're within hailing distance of London, please do come along to see me talk about "How To Be A Truth Detective" at the Royal Institution. The event is at 2pm on Saturday 23 September and is perfect for a familiy audience. == This column was...
Freiburg, in south-west Germany, is about the same size as my home city of Oxford. It has a few beautiful old buildings — the Münster is breathtaking — but little to compare with Oxford’s dreaming spires, particularly after the centre of Freiburg was heavily bombed in...
Cautionary Book Club:When Morgan Stanley offered to lease Chicago's parking meters for the princely sum of $1 billion, the City Council were convinced they had struck gold and hastily signed the deal. They soon learnt, however, that they hadn't just traded away...
I didn’t ask to become a personal productivity guru, but somehow my colleagues keep volunteering me for the role — most recently for Isabel Berwick’s Working It podcast, in the recording of which I blushed and generally felt like an imposter. This is partly because...
1812. A band of "Luddites" is laying siege to a textile mill in the North of England, under cover of night. They plan to destroy the machines that are replacing their jobs. But mill owner William Cartwright is prepared: he's fortified his factory with skilled...
Andy Warhol’s assistant, Gerard Malanga, is facing a long prison sentence in Italy. He’s forged several Che Guevara portraits and tried to pass them off as genuine Warhols. What happens next is a landmark moment in the history of art and authenticity… Tim Harford is...
Above the Viking swords and skeletons, across from the enchanting display of vintage dollhouses, Denmark’s National Museum contains a human-scale hamster wheel. Visitors may climb inside, grab the controls and slowly, arduously, start to walk and jog. A digital screen...
Heroic explorer Frederick Cook has just returned from the very roof of the world, the first man to reach the North Pole. Or so he says. Journalist Philip Gibbs has been watching him, and he’s convinced he’s lying. When Gibbs publishes that belief, he stands alone....
What colour is the sky? The ocean? You might think the answer is obvious: they’re blue. Maybe not, though. Homer’s seas were “wine-dark”, and he never referred to the colour blue. He wasn’t unusual in this; most ancient texts don’t use the word. Exactly why this might...