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The artificial gravity lab

Tom Scott | December 28, 2025



In the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory at Brandeis University, there’s the Artificial Gravity Facility: otherwise known as the rotating room. No-one’s invented futuristic gravity plating yet, but if you want to test how humans would cope with artificial gravity, this is the best way.

More about the Artificial Gravity Facility:
https://www.brandeis.edu/graybiel/facilities/srr.html

More about the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory: https://www.brandeis.edu/graybiel/

Edited by Michelle Martin https://www.youtube.com/@OnTheCrux
Audio mix by Graham Haerther http://haerther.net
Animation by Mooviemakers http://www.mooviemakers.co.uk

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Written by Tom Scott

Comments

This post currently has 49 comments.

  1. @thenotsurechannel7630

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    There is an issue with rooms like this… You're dealing with the Earth's downward pull as well as the pull of the room's rotation. To have a truer artificial gravity feel, you'd have to put a room like that on a space craft in a zero-g environment and turn on the rotation. THEN… you'd only have the pull from the room's rotation. Suddenly… the wall you're back is resting on would be the downward force, it would turn from a "wall" to the "floor" you could stand on.

  2. @gemorris13

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    They had or still do have the same thing at Magic Mountain in California. It's fun, but if you really want to see how people react under this environment, go there plenty of test subjects for free.

  3. @Bloxfruit_gameplay-mi4yy

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    If a room like that spins fast enough, your perspective changes to the outside wall being the floor and the floor being the wall, The only reason why I know this is cuz I went on to starship 2000 at the Nebraska State Fair, What I described happened to me.

  4. @lordeisschrank

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    to this day nobody was able to explain to me why rotation would have any effect in space… like what exactly would force you onto the wall? why wouldn't you just float in place and the station rotating around you?

  5. @JeremyTipton-r1g

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    That inner ear issue… Would that actually be a problem in space? You wouldn't be getting conflicting signals from actual real gravity.
    And the floor would be at a 90 degree angle to the force, so you wouldn't feel like your constantly standing on a slope.
    Could also use a larger diameter circle, that would tame the Coriolis effect a bit.
    And no need to be throwing balls around on a ship.

  6. @erinm9445

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    I don't think the issue is that our brain hasn't evolved for this, it's just that we don't have experience with it. But the speed at which Tom is able to adjust to the Coriolis force despite a LIFETIME of ordinary gravity experience, suggests that the brain itself is more than capable of handling these physics.

  7. @JamzStudios

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    Well I think it's about time they release the anti-gravity technology don't you? Stay tuned to the Congressional hearings in America with all of whistleblowers.

  8. @admantius

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    I'm really curious if they've ever invited aerial artists to test out that room. OkGo did a whole music video in a zero-g plane, and hired aerial artists to be their 'flight attendants' because their bodies are so used to doing things in environs with unusual forces.

    Really great video! So cool what the human body adapts to, and how quickly

  9. @josh7120

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    how come as kids being on the fare grounds ride "the gravitron" it was spinning so fast, we pulled our selves off the wall mats and spun around, or literally stood up turning our heads all around, we were fine?? not everyone was fine as they threw up

  10. @myboyjimbo

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    Make a big version and spin it so fast you can walk around in a ring, and then make it planet sized and add mountains and rivers and oceans and glowing monoliths

  11. @deezynar

    December 28, 2025 at 4:15 pm

    How do they plan on handling people moving around inside the rotating room and shifting the center of gravity with the weight of their bodies? And when they climb to the hub the rotational speed of the room will increase.
    The only way to minimize these negative conditions is to make the spaceship very large in diameter, and very heavy. Even with that, they need to have rules to keep bad things from happening. One thing is they'd want to keep large numbers of people from gathering together in one area.

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