In 2018 Dr Frances Arnold was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Then she gave it back. Why At the turn of the 20th Century Australia went through a bit of a fortune telling craze. The practise was illegal and the police tried to prosecute where they could but the women survived and in some cases thrived. Alphabets are disappearing. There are between 6,000 to 7,000 languages in the world. Yet 96% are spoken by just 3% of the global population and 85% are endangered. What do barcodes and trains have in common? Without one we wouldn't have the other.