Athletics: When barefoot Bikila became a global sensation - I know my father was a decent rugby player and an accomplished boxer during his national service, but I’m not really sure where his reverence for the world’s greatest distance runners emanated from. Growing up I remember him talking with great enthusiasm about the likes of Paavo Nurmi, Vladimir Kuts and Emil Zatopek… but one…
Wild Bill: Gunned down with aces and eights - Just about every poker player on the planet knows that a pair of black aces and eights are “dead man’s hand” and that the reason harks back to when Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back of the head while holding them in a game of five-card stud in Deadwood, South Dakota. But the…Main archive…
Science: How Curie changed the world - Not only was she the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, but when awarded the honour again she became the first person to achieve it for a second time… also becoming the only woman to win it in two different fields. Known for her research into radioactivity and the discovery of polonium and radium,…
Hedy Lamarr: Ecstasy and invention - MGM called her “the most beautiful woman in the world” but there was a lot more to the Austrian sex bomb who depicted the film world's first female orgasm than mere good looks... Hedy Lamarr also had an incredible mind, making a major contribution to the later development of wifi, GPS and Bluetooth. The striking…Main archive…
