Bertrand Russell: Is the Present King of France Bald?
On this day in 1872, a boy was born in Wales who would later grow up to pose many perplexing questions to the rest of the world. His name was Bertrand Russell, and he is remembered today as an important British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic. Russell held a good number of controversial … Read more
The Philosopher’s Stone
If you could turn your aluminium Coca-Cola can into gold, would you? You probably would, but if everybody could do it, it wouldn’t be quite so amazing since gold would become common and not worth much. The old Greek myth of King Midas, who was granted his wish that everything he touched would turn to gold, reminds us that he … Read more
Alfred Wegener: A Shifting World
There are few things more rewarding than completing a difficult jigsaw puzzle. Alfred Wegener was a prominent scientist and geologist who solved one of the biggest puzzles on Earth, he suggested a theory called ‘Continental Drift’ which explained how the Earth’s continents once fitted together, just like a jigsaw. In A Little History of Science, author William Bynum … Read more
Confucius: Living Together in Harmony
Confucius – or K’ung Fut-zu, as he was called in Chinese – was a philosopher who proposed some ideas that seem very simple, which might be the reason why he is still so popular today. What he taught was this: outward appearances are more important than we think – bowing to our elders, letting others … Read more
How to Have a Conversation
Have you ever wondered how people learned to have conversations? Why don’t we all speak at the same time? Why do we speak at the same time when we argue?! With a language disappearing every two weeks and new words springing up almost daily, it’s more important than ever to understand where language comes from. … Read more
