What would happen if we embraced silence a bit more? | BBC Ideas
Introduction In today’s world it can feel like there’s no space for silence. Like we’re always required to be responding to something, to be saying something new. Whether that’s answering a text or an email, a tweet, a WhatsApp message or even the phone. My name’s Harriet Shawcross. I’m a film-maker and a journalist and […]
Why we all experience the world differently | BBC Ideas
Intro The world we experience isn’t just given to us. The brain is actively generating our experienced worlds every moment of every day. Perception If I’m sitting on the beach, and I open my eyes, I suddenly see before me the sea, the waves, I can feel the breeze on my face, I can hear […]
Terry Waite: What being a hostage taught me about happiness | BBC Ideas
I had a limited amount of suffering. OK, I was tortured and so on, many people suffered far worse than me. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s special envoy, Terry Waite, hasn’t been seen for more than 24 hours. Fears are growing that he may be held against his will in West Beirut. Where he’s been trying […]
The true story of Mary Anning: The girl who helped discover dinosaurs | BBC Ideas
Mary Anning, the woman who helped discover dinosaurs. Mary Anning was born into a poor family in Lyme Regis, on the south coast of England, in 1799. As a child, she loved strolling across the beach and cliffs with her father. He was a cabinet maker who earnt extra money by searching for fossils. He […]
Three black scientists you need to know | BBC Ideas
Introduction All my life, I’ve dreamed of getting out there into space. Now, that was a challenge for me because I went to 13 different schools and I have a condition called dyslexia. Today I want to talk about three fellow black scientists, one from the past, one from the present and one from the […]
Severn Cullis-Suzuki: The 12-year-old who tried to save the world | BBC Ideas
Introduction In 1992, I was 12 years old, and I had the opportunity to speak to the United Nations plenary session of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. I remember that moment very clearly. I think it’s burned into my memory. I remember just such a clear sense of purpose. Severn CullisSuzuki Coming up […]
The exceptional life of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin | BBC Ideas
Intro Professor Hodgkin… …should be much better known than she is. Scientists admire the great determination and skill which has always been the mark of your work. She was a highly intelligent, highly focused scientist. She would keep going, whatever the difficulties. You just solve the next small problem and eventually the whole problem will […]
The woman who tamed lightning | Hertha Marks Ayrton | BBC Ideas
You’re standing in a street in a British town in the late Victorian era, the old Queen is still on the throne. It’s a time between the old world and the new. It’s a winter’s night – cold and moonless. You should also imagine one more thing – there’s electric street light, high off the […]
Eva Kor: The Holocaust survivor who forgave the Nazis | BBC Ideas
Introduction One day, in 1944, my family and I were arrested. Packed into cattle trains with no food or water. We were taken to Poland and left on the selection platform in Auschwitz. A Nazi guard spotted me and my identical twin sister Miriam clinging to my mother. He tore us from my mother’s arms […]
Five charts that changed the world | BBC Ideas
Introduction This is a pie chart. And this is Scottish political economist William Playfair, who created the world’s first pie chart, along with some of the first line and bar charts. Data visualisation is everywhere today, but when Playfair first created them over 200 years ago, using shapes to represent numbers was largely sneered at. […]