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...
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...
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...
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...
Fact-checkers are level-headed people in my experience. They see claims circulating online — or in parliament — and check them, clarifying the confusing ones and refuting the lies. They are not prone to moral panics or conspiracy theories. But some of my favourite...
Be prepared! It’s the scout’s motto. But prepared for what? In The Lion King, the song “Be Prepared” is a rousing celebration of fratricide, while Tom Lehrer’s song of the same title advised boy scouts: “Don’t solicit for your sister, that’s not nice / unless you get...
Fifty miles north of what is now Edinburgh and nearly 2,000 years ago, the Roman empire’s Twentieth Legion began to build a fort near the River Tay. By Roman standards, it was unremarkable, despite its 20-hectare size and earthworks several metres thick. It boasted a...
To Tivoli Gardens in the heart of Copenhagen, one of the world’s oldest amusement parks. It was founded 180 years ago, and its creator George Carstensen secured the land by petitioning King Christian VIII, arguing, “When the people are amusing themselves, they do not...