Sir Christopher Ondaatje

For devotees of the brilliant and largely forgotten 19th-century explorer, naturalist and scientist Alexander von Humboldt, the past year has been something of a bonanza. First came 2016’s The Invention of Nature: Alex­ander von Humboldt’s New World, the excellent biography by Andrea Wulf, which won the coveted £25,000 Royal Society prize in Britain for the best science book of the…

The world’s most famous earthquake occurred on the San Andreas Fault in northern California early in the morning of April 18, 1906, in two shocks separated by a pause and lasting between 45 and 60 seconds in all. The lower part of San Francisco’s City Hall collapsed almost instantaneously, as did many other buildings. But the fire that started after the earthquake had disabled the main water supply was what destroyed the…

Gold has always had a value to human beings well before it was money. The “Gold of Troy” treasure hoard was found in Turkey and dated back to 2456–2000 BC. It was highly valued, owned by the powerful and made into objects of worship. But it had not yet become money, although as far back as 3100 BC there is evidence of a gold/silver value ratio in the code of…