Intellect PlusCards starting with I
5,618 cards. Page 10 of 94.
Ibn Butlan, the medieval physician who turned medical handbooks into structured, tabular data.Long before modern medical databases, an 11th-century Arab physician revolutionized how health knowledge was recorded. By adapting astrological almanac formats into a systematic r…
Ibn Khaldun wrote his masterpiece on the rise and fall of states in six monthsA 14th-century scholar from Tunis produced the Muqaddimah, an introduction to history so penetrating that later Ottoman historians used it to diagnose their own empire's decline. …
Ibn Rushd travelled to Morocco to see a star hidden from CórdobaIn 1153 the philosopher Ibn Rushd journeyed from Córdoba to Marrakesh to watch Canopus, a brilliant star that never climbed above his home horizon. Seeing it appear as he moved so…
Ibn Umar: The reluctant political giant who defined early Islamic tradition through quiet neutralityAs the son of the second Caliph and brother-in-law to Muhammad, Ibn Umar stood at the epicenter of early Islamic power. Yet, he famously refused to seize the throne, choosing inst…
Ibogaine offers a radical, dream-like path to treating addiction, but at a dangerous cost.Derived from the Central African iboga tree, ibogaine induces a unique, hours-long dream state that researchers believe could disrupt substance use disorders. Yet, the substance c…
Ibrahim Nasir: The Architect of Modern Maldives and a Figure of Deep Historical ControversyIbrahim Nasir transformed the Maldives from a quiet protectorate into an independent nation with a booming tourism industry. Yet, his legacy remains sharply divided between his st…
Ibrahim Rugova: The intellectual who built a parallel state to resist Yugoslav ruleKnown as the Gandhi of the Balkans, Ibrahim Rugova led Kosovo’s struggle for independence through non-violent resistance. A literary scholar turned politician, he established a sh…
Ibuprofen was born in a Boots lab in Nottingham in 1961One of the world's most familiar painkillers came out of a Boots research lab in Nottingham, where Stewart Adams and John Nicholson discovered it in 1961. First sold as Brufen, ib…
ICBC, the world's biggest bank, was carved out of China's central bankFor three decades after 1949, China had essentially one bank doing everything. When reformers split it apart, one of the pieces became the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.…
ICD-11 bans the letters I and O so nobody mistakes them for digitsThe WHO's newest disease classification, ICD-11, took effect on 1 January 2022 after more than a decade of work by over 300 specialists from 55 countries. It holds about 85,000 en…
Ice Age figurines still count among humanity’s oldest artPaint containers from Middle Stone Age South Africa may reach one hundred thousand years back. Carved Swabian Jura figurines and flutes fall between about forty-three thousand and…
Ice Age sculptures reveal that ancient artists captured the full spectrum of womanhood.Archaeological evidence suggests that prehistoric depictions of women were far more nuanced than modern stereotypes imply. By examining these ancient carvings, we can move beyond …
Ice ages may drive species divergence through repeated range shiftsResearchers suggest that the repeated expansion and contraction of species ranges during ice ages may drive evolution. By examining the grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus, which s…
Ice counts as a mineral, liquid water does not, and mercury gets a passMineralogists keep a strict rulebook. A mineral must form naturally, be solid, have ordered atoms and a fairly fixed recipe. So ice qualifies but water does not, seashells are exc…
Ice delayed Scandinavia’s Stone Age by millenniaUnder the Weichselian ice sheet, almost all of Scandinavia stayed buried, so the Stone Age arrived late. Permanent though still mobile habitation took root only around 12,000 BCE …- Ice nearly emptied Europe—then three ancestries remade itKostenki 14, living by the Don about 37,000 years ago, already carries ancestry still visible in today’s Europeans. When ice peaked between about 27,000 and 19,000 years ago, huma…
Iceland follows most EU market rules without a vote, largely because of fishIceland sends 78% of its exports to the EU, sits inside the Schengen passport-free zone and must adopt EU single-market directives, yet it has no seat at the table that writes the…
Iceland rejects EU membership in 2026 referendum over fishing and sovereigntyDespite a growing geopolitical shift in the North Atlantic, Iceland chose to maintain its independence from the European Union. The 2026 referendum highlighted a profound tension:…
Iceland reportedly hesitated over Christianity because converts had to give up horse meatIn the eighth century, popes told the missionary Saint Boniface to forbid horse meat among converted Germans, since it was bound up with pagan rites. Icelanders allegedly resisted…
Iceland was the last major landmass on Earth to be settled by humansWhile most of the world was populated millennia ago, Iceland remained a wild, uninhabited frontier until the Viking Age. Settled by Norse explorers in the late 9th century, this r…
Iceland's complex history with whaling reflects a long struggle for sovereignty and economic independence.Whaling in Iceland has evolved from 12th-century spear-drift hunting to a modern industry defined by international friction. Despite global moratoriums and intense diplomatic pres…- Iceland's massive glacial park hides active volcanoes and vast, shifting landscapes beneath the ice.Spanning 14 percent of Iceland, Vatnajökull National Park is a colossal wilderness defined by the volatile interplay of fire and ice. It protects Europe's second-largest national …
Iceland's national sport is a dance of technique rather than brute forceIn most wrestling, strength is king. But in Glíma, the Icelandic national sport, victory is found through grace and precision. By stepping in a clockwise circle and avoiding force…- Icelandic voters just handed the 'Valkyries' the keys to the AlthingIn a historic shift, the 2024 Icelandic parliamentary election saw the collapse of a long-standing government and the rise of a new all-female coalition. It marks a definitive bre…
Iconography decodes what a picture shows, not how it was paintedWhy does one saint hold keys and another a wheel? Iconography is the branch of art history that sets style aside and asks what an image depicts: which figures, how many, where the…
ICQ: Before WhatsAppICQ, short for 'I Seek You', was available by the mid-1990s and had an estimated 12 million users when AOL announced it was buying its Israeli maker, Mirabilis. Some ideas from ea…
Idaho's name was likely a complete fabrication, yet it became a state identity.The name Idaho was once thought to be a Shoshone term for gem of the mountains. In reality, it was likely a total invention by a politician posing as a delegate. Despite this shak…
Ideal theory grew up and renamed itself commutative algebraCommutative algebra studies rings where multiplication swaps freely, plus their ideals and modules. Algebraic geometry and number theory both lean on it—so much that once-geometri…
Ideals began as imaginary numbers invented to rescue prime factorisationIn some number systems, whole numbers can be broken into primes in more than one way, which wrecks a lot of arithmetic. Ernst Kummer patched the hole by imagining missing factors …
Identical twins don't run in families, but fraternal twins canFraternal twins come from two separate eggs, and a gene that makes some women release extra eggs can pass down the generations. Identical twins arise when a single fertilized egg …
Identifying an obscure tool with the help of Nick OffermanThe team from Ask This Old House faces a mystery: an expanding black rectangle. Watch as they team up with celebrities to decode the purpose of this enigmatic tool.
Identifying gaps in how we monitor chemicals in our water and soilA review of emerging contaminants found that current monitoring methods often overlook key pathways for pollutants like pharmaceuticals and personal care products. While these sub…
Identifying hidden groups in data depends heavily on how distinct they areA simulation study evaluating seven different model selection methods found that researchers struggle to correctly identify the number of hidden subgroups when those groups are no…
Identifying the exact moment a curve changes its bendIn calculus, an inflection point marks a fundamental shift in a function's behavior. This video demonstrates how to locate these points algebraically by analyzing where the second…
Identifying the factors that shape public opinion on repurposing historic buildingsResearchers examining the conversion of the FIX Brewery in Athens, Greece, found that specific factors drive how the public perceives adaptive reuse. By analyzing the relationship…
Identifying the Himalayas' hidden tigers by their unique markingsIn a region closed to outsiders for years, researchers are using high-resolution remote cameras to identify individual tigers. This footage captures the meticulous process of dist…
Identifying the key individuals who can accelerate your career growthCarla Harris explores how to navigate workplace dynamics to find the specific people capable of advancing your professional trajectory. This talk provides a strategic framework fo…
Identifying your dog's breed can be a source of confusion for many owners.Many dog owners are uncertain about their pet's specific breed or simply want to learn more about the diversity of canine types. This instructional video provides guidance to help…
Identity is more than ancestry in the American SouthwestWhile Spanish-speaking lineage exists for almost fifty percent of New Mexicans, their self-identification involves a multifaceted blend of social elements, biology, and history. F…- Identity is not a performance or a visual aestheticMany assume being transgender is defined by how a person dresses or behaves. In reality, gender identity is internal and independent of outward appearance. To be a true ally, you …
Identity theft is far more than just a stolen credit cardMost people assume identity theft ends with a drained bank account. However, the theft of your personal information can trigger a cascade of much more complex consequences, rangin…
Ideology was invented in a Terror-era prison as a science of ideasAntoine Destutt de Tracy spent November 1793 to October 1794 locked up awaiting trial during the Reign of Terror, reading Locke and Condillac. Out of that confinement came a new w…
Idi Amin rose from army cook to Uganda's dictatorIdi Amin joined the colonial King's African Rifles in 1946 as an assistant cook. Tall and powerful, he boxed his way to a national title and climbed to command Uganda's armed forc…
Idol factories turned Korean rap-dance into global exportK-pop—Korean popular music—crystallized in 1990s youth culture via Seo Taiji and Boys rap-dance fusion, then Lee Soo-man's idol system spawning H.O.T. and S.E.S. BTS and Blackpink…
Ieremia Tabai: The barefoot president who climbed coconut trees to save his nation moneyAs the first president of Kiribati, Ieremia Tabai rejected elitism, famously riding his bicycle to shops without shoes. He navigated the young nation through independence, economi…
If a computer mimics understanding, does it actually possess a mind?In 1980, philosopher John Searle proposed a challenge to the rising tide of artificial intelligence. This video explores his famous thought experiment and investigates whether a p…
If a headline ends in a question mark, is the answer always no?Betteridge's law suggests that any headline posed as a question can be answered with a simple no. Journalists often use this tactic when they lack the evidence to make a definitiv…
If a lobster jumps, does it become a fish?In the early 1960s, a maritime dispute between Brazil and France nearly escalated into full-scale war. The battlefield wasn't a disputed island, but the biological classification …
If a solution is easy to verify, is it also easy to find?In the realm of mathematics, some problems are trivial for computers, while others may be fundamentally impossible. Complexity theory explores this boundary, centering on one of t…
If a therapy works, it usually stops being alternativeAlternative medicine promises healing without the scientific method’s usual proofs—plausibility, controlled trials, and repeatable benefit. History’s pattern is blunt: methods tha…
If aliens are likely, where is everybody? A lunchtime question with no answer.In 1950, walking to lunch at Los Alamos, the physicist Enrico Fermi suddenly asked his colleagues, 'Where is everybody?' Everyone knew he meant aliens. Billions of Sun-like stars,…
If all human brains look identical, why is every individual uniquely different?On December 31, 1994, Dr. Susan Greenfield concluded her Christmas Lectures at the Royal Institution by exploring the mystery of human individuality. While our brains appear physi…
If an accident is unavoidable, how should a computer decide who survives?Self-driving cars will save thousands of lives annually, yet they introduce a profound ethical crisis. This video explores the dilemma of programming machines to make split-second…
If an AI predicts your divorce with 95% accuracy, would you still marry?Thomas Hofweber examines the ethical dilemma of predictive modeling, using the hypothetical scenario of a highly accurate but opaque AI that can forecast the likelihood of a marri…
If California were a country, its economy would top most nationsCalifornia, on the Pacific coast of the United States, is home to over 39 million people, more than any other state. Its economy, worth about $4.3 trillion in 2025, is the largest…
If Earth is not the center of the universe, where are we?For millennia, thinkers from Aristotle to Bruno grappled with our place in the cosmos. We have long since discovered that Earth sits far from the center of the Solar System and th…
If evangelicals could elect a pope, John Stott is the man they would choose.A British Anglican pastor who lived simply and never married, John Stott became the architect of 20th-century global evangelicalism. He shaped the faith of a generation by arguing…
If every atom is a tiny magnet, why isn't everything magnetic?In the 1920s, the fundamental nature of magnetism remained a mystery. This video explores the physics behind magnetic fields and the unanswered questions that once puzzled physici…
If everyone on Earth faced a nuclear blast, who would survive the longest?Nuclear survival is often framed as a matter of distance, but biological factors play a critical role. This video explores the hypothetical scenario of a global nuclear event wher…
If evolution's tape were rewound, would it reinvent eyes, wings and intelligence?Stephen Jay Gould argued in 1989 that replaying the history of life would produce a very different result. Simon Conway Morris disagrees, pointing to how often unrelated creatures…