In Ocado’s grocery warehouses, thousands of mechanical boxes move on the Hive. Are they all individual robots? Or is this one giant hive mind? • Thanks to Ocado: https://www.ocadogroup.com/solutions/online-grocery (this video is not sponsored, and they had no editorial control). Reference: Strandwitz P. (2018). Neurotransmitter modulation by the gut microbiota. […]
The Orkney Islands, off the northern tip of Scotland, have so much electricity that it’s actually a problem. Here’s why: and here’s what they’re doing about it. • This video has a correction: Hornsdale Power Reserve didn’t catch fire! It was the newer Victorian Big Battery, near Geelong. Complete blunder […]
NERC’s Space Geodesy Facility, hidden away in the English countryside, fires lasers at satellites. Because it turns out that knowing a satellite’s position exactly is really, really difficult. More about the Facility: http://sgf.rgo.ac.uk/ Thanks to Jay Dickieson for the suggestion! 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/ (you can find contact details […]
At a pumped storage plant in western Austria, a company called Energy Robotics is testing robot dogs for inspection. All the fancy Boston Dynamics publicity stunts aside: are the robots actually useful? ■ As ever: this is not an advert, Energy Robotics and illwerke vkw had no editorial control. They […]
In Brienz/Brinzauls, a small village in the east of Switzerland, there’s a village slipping into a valley and a road that’s surprisingly dangerous. Thanks to everyone I interviewed: pull down the description for links and more details! CCTV footage from Geopraevent, used with permission: https://www.geopraevent.ch/ More details on the Brienz […]
In most of the world, inhaling radon for pain relief sounds like a bizarre idea. In some places, though, it’s so accepted that it’s prescribed by doctors and covered by health insurance. And I have no idea how to talk about it. Thanks to the team at the Radonstollen in […]
Electrical Network Frequency analysis, ENF analysis, matches background hum against power grid logs. I talked to one of the researchers who works on it, and also set them a challenge. Thanks to @answerinprogress, @hannahwitton and @SteveMould! 🟥 MORE FROM TOM: https://www.tomscott.com/ (you can find contact details and social links there […]
The International Cocoa Quarantine Centre, at the University of Reading, has an important job: stop pests and viruses from hitching a ride, as researchers try to breed better and hardier varieties of cocoa. Here’s how they do it. ■ https://research.reading.ac.uk/cocoa/international-cocoa-quarantine-centre-reading/ Articles mentioned: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/21/cocoa-crisis-world-chocolate-stash-melting-away https://people.com/food/world-chocolate-shortage-mars/ More reading and sources: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/preventing-a-future-without-chocolate https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23631571-800-cocoa-quarantine-one-tropical-tent-near-london/ […]
Hutton’s Unconformity, at Siccar Point, is about an hour east of Edinburgh, in Scotland, and I’ve wanted to set my own two feet on it for years. And from it, I’ve got a bigger question: is there anything we’ve missed? The story of the Hutton Unconformity: https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/GeositesSiccarPoint https://www.edinburghgeolsoc.org/edinburghs-geology/huttons-unconformity/ https://www.pesgb.org.uk/news/huttons-unconformity-siccar-point/ 🟥 […]
In the 1960s, America was running “Operation Plowshare”: the idea that perhaps nuclear bombs could be used for peace, not war. At least some British scientists had similar ambitions, and it involved setting off a nuclear bomb under Wheeldale, in the North York Moors National Park. Based on catalogue reference […]
