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Science
Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller, Senior Lecturer in Digital Humanities, Australian National University

Long before Silicon Valley, scholars in ancient Iraq created an intellectual hub that revolutionised science

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Time and again, collaboration has proven to be a key driver of scientific and technological innovation. So it follows that some of the greatest advances have come from intellectual hubs set up for this very purpose.

Today Silicon Valley is synonymous with this idea – but it’s just one in a long line of institutions that paved the way before it. One such example came from Baghdad, Iraq, during the Islamic Golden Age in the fourth Islamic century (tenth century AD).

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