Hydrogen power is one of the green energies of the future. Multi-billion dollar companies such as Toyota, Honda, Hyundai and Shell are pouring billions of dollars into researching hydrogen power and how we can effectively use it to fuel the cars of the future. In principle hydrogen seems like the ideal choice, it’s abundant in the universe and has an energy density three times greater than gasoline and methane, yet electric cars are already outstripping it.

Cars are currently the main market for hydrogen power, as hydrogen fuel cells offer an easy way and reliable way of generating power over long periods of time. …

Silphium, as it was called in the ancient world, was a plant that grew in the ancient city of Cyrene, in modern-day Libya. The plant was so pivotal to the city’s economy that it was printed onto its coinage and is to thank for making this area into the richest in Africa.

The Romans and Greeks bought it in large quantities, they wrote stories and poems about it, and included it in their plays. The plant was so valuable that it’s reported that Julius Caesar kept a stash of 800Kg(1,500 pounds) of it stashed away. …

Tinnitus was life-changing for me. I was never the most focused person, to begin with. And at first, when I woke up to a ringing in my ears I thought nothing of it. Maybe I’d listened to music too loud the night before, maybe I was a bit hungover (this was my first year of university after all).

But the ringing never stopped. It still hasn’t.

To hear this constant noise is one of the most distracting things I’ve ever experienced. It’s perpetually there, there is no silence anymore. I can’t ever just stop and have a moment of peace and quiet. …

Louis the XIV, also known as ‘the Sun King,’ was born on the 5th of September 1638 and died on the 1st of September 1715. He had the longest reign of any European monarch in history, a record he holds even today. However, when he did ascend to the throne completely after the regency of his Chief Minister ended, he found that the king didn’t have as much power as he’d have liked.

The Kingdom of France was decentralised, with the real power lying in the hands of the nobles who had no qualms with revolting against their king. Instead of using force against them Louis the XIV used shrewd politicking to deter them away. This is how the Palace of Versailles came to be. …

The Jasenovac Concentration Camp was set up by the Ustaše in the newly formed Independent State of Croatia (NDH) mere days after the party came to power on the 10th of April 1941, after the Axis powers had taken control of modern-day Serbia. The NDH shared a similarly racist ideology to the German Nazi Party and ran their own, often less well-known, concentration camp. …

The Islamic Golden Age was a time of learning and development for the well-educated members of society. From the 8th century to the mid-13th century— or the fourteenth century depending on your viewpoint — the Islamic world saw astonishing developments in their understanding of geometry, medicine, philosophy, languages, optics, geology, and more.

The translation movement

The translation movement began in the mid-eighth century and is thought to have ended in the mid-tenth century. Its start was marked by the building of the House of Wisdom during the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid after he had ordered the construction of Baghdad itself. …

The Jewish people have been treated awfully throughout the centuries. Antisemitism dates back to before the birth of Jesus and has been prevalent throughout history. Jews had little chance of rising through the noble ranks of medieval society and in most cases were restricted only to being able to work in the fields of finance and banking. This happened because in the Christian dominated world of medieval Europe usury (lending money) was a sin, but, to the benefit of the Jewish people, the Torah does not forbid it.

Who was the Court Jew?

The Court Jew was a way for monarchs to take advantage of a biblical loophole that meant they could commit usury, or gain a valuable courtier with a link to the financial sector. In practice, the idea of having a Court Jew has been around since the late 12th century in Christian Europe. Due to the rampant antisemitism that plagued Early Medieval Europe, Jews themselves were almost universally banned from taking up any occupation outside the financial sector, which meant that they made up a large percentage of bankers and other financial occupations. …

Sir Henry Morgan was a British privateer famous for his cunning and bravery, he sacked cities and towns as he pleased and demanded the respect of those around him. Fondly remembered today as the face of Captain Morgan’s rum, the crafty sailor was far more than the man on the bottle of rum.

Early Life

Morgan was born in the county of Monmouthshire, Wales, in 1635. His exact birthplace is believed to have been somewhere in the vicinity of modern-day Cardiff and it’s not known for certain. In fact, so much of Morgan's early life is a mystery that it’s not even known who his parents were. …