360 on history by Saima Baig

Discover how ancient Roman concrete has lasted nearly 2,000 years — and what it can teach us about building stronger, more sustainable structures today. From the Pantheon to self-healing concrete, this episode of 360 on History explores timeless lessons for modern construction.

Her name is Martha Jane Coston, and she gave the world a way to communicate at sea – with bright, colourful flares that could be seen for miles. She wasn’t a trained scientist or engineer. She was a young widow and mother, facing personal tragedy and financial hardship. But through determination, creativity, and sheer grit, she changed maritime safety forever.

We all know of the pioneers of computer science like Alan Turing and Bill Gates. What most people are not familiar with is Mary Kenneth Keller - a Catholic nun and one of the field's true trailblazers. In the US, she was one of the first people to earn a Ph.D in computer science and then went on to make computing accessible.

A whistlestop tour of the history of music. Starting from our ancient ancestors beating drums and creating flutes to the lyres of greece, the Gregorian chants of the medieval period, Mozart, Beethoven, jazz, blues and rock and roll. Till today when we are using AI to help us in our creations.

The Nashtifan windmills, also known as Asban, are located in eastern Iran. They are among the oldest windmills in the world. Made of clay, wood, and straw, these vertical-axis windmills have harnessed strong desert winds for centuries to grind grain, showcasing an ingenious example of ancient sustainable technology.

A new research conducted by researchers from the University of Calgary and the National Research Council of Canada has yielded some fascinating results. It seems that all living things – including humans – emit a glow when we are alive. This glow vanishes when we die.

There was an ancient Kingdom in the Horn of Africa. It was called the Kingdom of Aksum and its was an important maritime hub and cultural centre, trading globally. It was also one of the first regions to adopt Christianity.

Are the Earth's Magnetic Poles Flipping? We talk about the Magnetic Field Reversals, Northern & Southern Lights, Magnetosphere & the north and south poles.

St. Mary's Trumpet Call or Hejnal is a traditional, five-note Polish bugle call closely bound to the history and traditions of Kraków. It is played every hour on the hour, four times in succession in each of the four cardinal directions, by a trumpeter on the highest tower of the city's Saint Mary's Basilica.

Mary Putnam Jacobi was a medical pioneer, paving the way for women in medicine and changing the landscape of women's health with her research

We bring you the ancient rock art of Northern Pakistan. Thousansd of carvings & inscriptions carved on boulders of the ancient Silk Road now part of the Karakoram Highway.

We are on a mission to talk about all the lesser known celestial objects in our skies. So, today we bring you Haumea, a dwarf planet that lives in the region beyond the orbit of our eighth planet Neptune.

Podcast Episode 118 is all about The Burning Mountain in Azerbaijan:, known as Yanar Dag. It has been burning since the 1950s.

Podcast Episode 117 is all about Krakow, A Medieval Town in Poland that used to be its royal capital back when Krakow was on the trade routes.

Phoebe, Saturn’s largest irregular moon, was discovered in 1899. Orbiting in the opposite direction of Saturn's rotation, Phoebe is believed to be a captured icy body from the Kuiper Belt. Cassini’s 2004 flyby revealed its dark surface and icy layers. Phoebe also contributes to Saturn’s Phoebe Ring and Iapetus' two-tone appearance.

A two part podcast episode on Women Led Societies in Britain and Origin of Indo European Languages, which are the fore-runners of most known in the world.

Agnes Sampson was a Scottish woman accused of witchcraft during the infamous North Berwick witch trials in the late 16th century. Known as the "Wise Woman of Keith," she was a healer and midwife, which made her a target for suspicion. In 1591, Sampson was arrested, tortured, and ultimately confessed to practicing witchcraft, including allegedly attempting to murder King James VI through sorcery.

Iapetus is one of Saturn's most intriguing moons, known for its striking two-tone appearance, with one hemisphere dark and the other bright. It has a highly inclined and slightly eccentric orbit, making it stand out among Saturn's moons. It also features a unique equatorial ridge, giving it the appearance of a walnut.

Artemisia Gentileschi was was one of the most accomplished and influential artists of the Baroque period (Baroque painting often dramatizes scenes using chiaroscuro light effects). Despite facing numerous challenges in a male-dominated society, she managed to carve out a successful career and leave an indelible mark on the art world.

This is our Podcast on Darwin & Evolution by Natural Selection celebrating Darwin Day on February 12, and World Evolution Day on November 24.

We’ve got two fascinating stories—one from deep space and the other from deep within history. firts about building blocks of life found in soil samples from asteroid Bennu. The next item is about scientists using lasers to reveal tattoos on mummies from the Chancay culture that existed on the Peruvian coast between roughly 900 and 1500 C.E.

Podcast Episode 110 is all about Malta, A Mediterranean Jewel, an archipelago of islands & one of the smallest island nations full of history

This podcast episode is on Kot Diji Fort, an 18th century fort in Sindh province, Pakistan. It is built upon an ancient Harappan site.

Stupendously large black holes (SLABs) are theoretical cosmic giants, potentially reaching trillions of solar masses with radii about a light-year wide. Though unobserved, they could exist if black holes grew at extraordinary rates, possibly lurking in the centres of distant galaxies.

A podcast to celebrate one of the most well known composers of all time: Ludwig van Beethoven. December 2020 marks 250 years of his birth, so what better time to celebrate the man and his music?

Gertrude Ederle was an American Olympic champion and record-breaking swimmer. On August 6, 1926, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel beating the record of one of only five men who had done it before. 

This podcast episode is on the the Nazca Lines, ancient lines carved on to the desert floor in Peru created over 2000 years ago.

Brown Dwarfs – Planets, stars, or something entirely different? Scientists think they lie between the two and can't fuse hydrogen.

Podcast Episode 104 is about The Picture of the Cosmic Microwave Background captured first by the WMAP and then Planck telescope.

Welcome to Podcast Episode 103 on Kent's Cavern: A Journey Through Time, a fascinating cave system in Torquay, Devon, on England's southern coast.

This iepisode is on Human Evolution and how the Ice Ages impacted our lives for millennia. Perhaps even influencing our brains.

Podcast Episode 101 is on The History and Evolution of the Olympics, where we talk about their begining in ancient Greece and evolution.

The Seven Wonders of the World is a famous list of extraordinary constructions that have captivated our imagination for millennia and represent the pinnacle of ancient architectural and engineering achievements. These are the new seven wonders of the world, a list of which was compiled after a campaign was started to choose 'Wonders of the World' from a selection of 200 existing monuments.

In this episode we discuss the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World that have inspired people and are the pinnacle of architecture.

July 20, 2019 marks 50 years since the first time humanity stepped foot on the moon and on our first podcast we talk about the moon itself, what led to the moon landing.

Podcast Episode 98 is on Romania's Growing, Moving & Reproducing Stones that are only found in one small town.

Discovered in 1998, Seahenge is a 4000 year old structure, estimated to have been built around 2049 BC.

Podcast Episode 96 is Cholistan Desert its forts, ancient civilisations and its people. Derawar fort in particular is very beautiful.

Technically, Earth has only one Moon. But here is the interesting thing. Over millions of years, the number of moons has varied. We talk about their story in this episode. 

This episode is on Noor Inayat Khan, an SOE agent with codename Madeleine sent to France in 1943 as a wireless operator to help the French resistance during World War II. Her job was to support the French resistance network known as Prosper. 

A 3D Map of the Human Brain has been created by a collaboration between Harvard researchers and Google Research analysing 1,400 terabytes of data.

Deep in the heart of the Sahara Desert, amidst the scorching sands and towering dunes, lies a remarkable archaeological treasure - the Dabous Giraffes. They can be found on a sandstone outcrop in the Ténéré desert in the first foothills of the Aïr Mountains in North Central Niger. We tell their story in this episode of the 360 on History Podcast.

Podcast Episode 91 is on an ancient asteroid. Does a clay tablet describe an ancient asteroid impact? Two scientists certainly thought that it described an asteroid hitting earth

We are discussing two different amazing news items in today's podcast. We have the reconstruction of the face of a 75,000-year-old female Neanderthal and then we learn about an orangutan who healed itself with a medicinal plant.

This 360 on History Podcast Episode is all about Driving. Whether you drive on the Left or Right, you can find out why here.

This Fantastic Women Series podcast is about Cynethryth, who was Queen of Mercia and exerted power and influence along with her husband King Offa.

Scientists have now answered the questions of how the moon was made in this New Simulation, showing that it formed very quickly after impact with another body called Theia. In this podcast we talk about the Moon, its structure and our fascination with it, as well as the new study. 

Recent advancements in genomic sequencing and analysis have started to unravel the intricate story of avian evolution. Two studies, published on April 1 in the journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and Nature, shed light on a genetic anomaly approximately 65 million years old (exactly when that asteroid hit) that has obscured scientists' understanding of avian evolutionary history. Specifically, a section of one chromosome failed to undergo expected mixing with adjacent DNA, impeding the construction of a detailed bird family tree.

Podcast Episode 85 is on The Eye of the Sahara, a geological structure found in the Saharan part of Mauritania in Africa.

Podcast Episode 84 is on When it rained for two million years, known as the Carnian Pluvial Event

Costa Rica is a lush country, with amazing ecology and environment. Amongst its green landscape can be found ancient structures known as the stone spheres of Costa Rica. The 300 spheres lie on the Diquís Delta and on Isla del Caño. To the locals they are known as bolas de piedra (stone balls) and are said to be attributed to the now extinct Disquis culture, a pre-Columbian indigenous culture of Costa Rica that flourished from AD 700 to 1530.

Podcast Episode 82 is on Rosalind Franklin a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer, whose work was central to understanding the structure of DNA.

New Podcast Episode on Crypto and its impact on Climate Change with some possible Solutions that can decrease the impact.

Queen Kubaba was was a legendary Mesopotamian queen according to the Sumerian King List, who ruled over the Kingdom of Kish. Legend has it that her rule lasted over 100 years before the rise of the dynasty of Akshak (a city of ancient Sumer, situated on the northern boundary of Akkad).

Podcast Episode 79 is all about Neptune, which is The Real Blue Planet in our Solar System, as well as being an ice-giant orbiting the Sun from far away.

There was a time when three pioneering women first decided to heat a home with solar energy in December 1948? So we celebrate this amazing innovation and these three fantastic women.

Have you heard of the Defenestration of Prague? First of all, how cool is the word defenestration? It means throwing someone out of the window and it happened three times in Prague's history. Listen to what happened in our latest podcast. 

The Americas have been traditionally considered new territories with civilisations not as old as the rest of the world. Even so, we find fascinating signs of varying cultures in both north and south America. Mesoamerica especially, is replete with different cultures that fascinated archaeologists - and us - ever since their discoveries. One of such fascinating archaeological finds are the Colossal Olmec Heads.

In late 19th-century and early 20th-century Britain, time itself was a commodity up for sale. In a world before smartphones and atomic clocks, a remarkable woman known as Ruth Belville sold time to the people of London.

Osman Kalin, the man behind the Treehouse, was a Turkish worker who had come to Berlin in search of a better life. Undeterred by the restrictions and tensions of the divided city, he found solace in a small triangular traffic island nestled between the East and West Berlin border walls.

The Berlin Wall Fell On November 9, 1989. As the cold war started to fizzle out, with revolutions and unrest all across the Eastern Bloc, the spokesman for the Communist Party of East Berlin was meant to announce a change in its relations with the west and a relaxation of the stringent border crossing laws. Instead, Günter Schabowski, a communist party official in East Berlin, played a pivotal role in the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Podcast on The Doomsday Vault: A global Seed Vault that is a repository for the world's food crop seeds.

The Astronomical Clock in Prague, known locally as the “Pražský orloj,” is one of the most famous and visually stunning astronomical clocks in the world. It is also the oldest functioning astronomical clock in the world. Located in the Old Town Square (Staroměstské náměstí) in Prague, Czech Republic, it is a remarkable piece of medieval engineering and artistry.

Scientists used artificial intelligence or AI to guess what Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ sounds like based on patterns of brain activity recorded while people were listening to it. This is extremely cool and you can listen to it here!

Stargazers were able to Witness Rare Blue Super Moon in August 2023. The next blue super moon will be in 2037, so this one was a very rare sighting. But what exactly is a super blue moon? And what is our fascination with our only satellite?

Here is a new Podcast Episode about this 2,000 year old computer. It is the Antikythera Mechanism and it was found aboard a sunken Greek ship.

Parthenogenesis in a crocodile, is it good for conservation? The finding involves an American crocodile in solitude for 16 years at a zoo in Costa Rica.

We are talking about what are solstice and equinoxes. How do they occur and what is the science.

The day was June 11 1997, engineer and entrepreneur Philippe Kahn was in a maternity ward at Sutter Maternity Center in Santa Cruz, California, awaiting the birth of his daughter. Hear the story in this podcast. 

This Podcast Episode discusses New strides in DNA knowledge regarding a new genetics library and that the lineage of Native Americans was Chinese.

Want to reduce your digital carbon footprint? Here’s how to do it. Our digital life has an environmental and climate impact. We need to reduce it.

On May 18, 1804, a young man declared himself the Emperor of France. His campaigns split the European continent and reduced in half a country we hardly remember: Prussia. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte.

On May 18, 1804, a young man declared himself the Emperor of France. His campaigns split the European continent and reduced in half a country we hardly remember: Prussia. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte.

Podcast Episode: The Ancient Empire of the Hittites, who ruled over Anatolia in modern day Turkey between the 18th and 12th century BC.

Podcast Episode 60 is on Kitty Wilkinson, The Saint of the Slums in Liverpool. She had the only boiler and taught people to disinfect.

Podcast Episode Moon Landing Conspiracy Theory – Did it really happen? We talk about some of the favourite theories and try to debunk them.

We are talking about vaccinations and the Anti-vaxxer movement. Are they right? This is our new conspiracy theory series. 

Graphite is a battery material and we don’t even know how much carbon it emits. It is used in the anode side of electric vehicle batteries and is made in extremely hot furnaces using a huge amount of energy. Two studies that came out in 2022 suggest that the estimates of graphite’s environmental cost and carbon footprint, spanning its complete global journey (from mine to finished product) have been grossly underestimated.

New Podcast Episode 56 on Is a sustainable blockchain possible? We talk about what is the blockchain and whether it is energy intensive.

Why do leaves fall and what is the reason we can see the purples, reds, oranges, yellows, and browns in winter? We talk about the colours of autumn and the falling leaves that precede winter.

From the Archives: Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was born on December 10, 1815. She was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Noel Byron. Ada Lovelace was an extremely brilliant woman, who excelled in mathematics, and today she is widely acknowledged as the first computer programmer.

October 4th, 1582 was the last day of the Julian calendar. To sync to the Gregorian calendar, 10 days were skipped, making the next day October 15. This is a short story of the calendar.

New Podcast episode about A 31,000 Year Old Surgical Amputation discovered on human skeletal remains in Indonesia. Its lower left leg seems to be amputated.

The Giant's Causeway is a huge stretch of hexagonal basalt columns that have generated myths and legends, as well as being of immense scientific interest. The are located in County Antrim, in the northern coast of Northern Ireland. 

The Ancient Amri-Nal Culture from Pakistan is older than the Indus Valley culture & part of History of South Asia. Sites are found in Sindh & Balochistan with pottery and human remains.

Ancient astronomical sites are spread across the earth, and have been fascinating people for millennia. What is less known is that the Americas also have one. It is called the Chankillo Archaeoastronomical Complex and dates from between 500-200 BC. Located in the north-central coast of Peru in the Casma Valley, it comprises a set of constructions and natural features that together functioned as a calendar, using the Sun to define important dates through the year.

This Podcast Episode is part of our Digital Sustainability Series and we talk about how Your website is adding to climate change

Podcast Episode Stop sending thank you emails they are adding to climate change by 16,433 tonnes of carbon a year. Part of our Digital Sustainability series

Podcast Episode on Hypatia - Greek Philosopher Mathematician Astronomer Killed By Fanatics. Her death was a result of power struggle between men.

Podcast on Hadrian's Wall and Vindolanda sites that form parts of the Remains of a Roman Britain, when Rome ruled over Britannia for 400 years.

New Podcast Episode on Earth's Evil Twin Venus, which Has New Images taken by the WISPR instrument aboard NASA's Parker Solar Probe.

Podcast Episode 43 on Lindisfarne – Where the Vikings entered England in 793AD and destroyed the Christian monastary that was there and took the monks as slaves.

Conwy Castle in Wales is the 700 years old fortress. This Historical castle was built by Edward l, King of England to subjugate the Welsh.

The Eating Green Fad is on the rise due to more information about cliamte change but is your almond and soy latte all yout think it is? Perhaps not.

The Ambleside Roman Fort in the UK from when Britain was a province of the huge Roman Empire. This is part of the history of Lake District. It really is amazing!

Eunice Newton Foote - The Woman Scientist Who Predicted Global Warming in 1856. She was a campaigner for women's rights. But she has been forgotten.

New Podcast on Ancient Colombian Rock Art. These cave paintings are part of the History of Colombia and depict animals and human figures.

We are talking about two things today, one from thousands of years ago and the other millions of years. First we talk about ancient carvings made by Neanderthals, and then about the age of the oldest stars in the Universe. 

Podcast episode on profile of The Women Behind the Vaccine designed to eliminate Covid19 pandemic, Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Catherine Green

The Arabian desert has been known as just that – a desert - including in archaeology. It was thought that there had been no iron-age activity in the area, which was around 1200 to 500 BCE. However, research conducted over the past 30 years or so has slowly changed the knowledge and understanding of the habitation and culture of this area. And not just from the iron-age but long before that! Thousands of stone structures, first discovered in the 1970s, and which are from 6500 to 2800 BC through to the present, have been identified across the  region, as well as the whole of the Arabia Peninsula. They range from burial markers, tower and pendant tombs and open-air structures, also known as gates.