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Science can sometimes feel like an abstract concept – something that happens in sealed-off labs full of people in white coats making impressive-sounding discoveries. But what if the workings of science can happen much closer than that? In your town, on your street… in your home?  This isn’t about inviting teams in hazmat suits round for tea (unless you really want to), but instead the idea that science is something that we can all get involved with. An ever-growing number o

The designs of some of our greatest inventions are inspired by nature – from imitating birds to build flying machines, leaves to design solar panels, or brains to construct the neural networks behind AI. This concept of taking a leaf from nature's design book is called "biomimicry".  But we've only just scratched the surface of this vast encyclopedia of design inspiration. The natural world is the most advanced Research & Development lab in existence. It has spent billions of

What do you think of when you hear the words “magic mushrooms”? It’s likely that you may be picturing long-haired hippies, experimental rock bands or cross-legged gurus preaching about peace and love. Our view of psychedelic drugs like LSD and magic mushrooms is still largely shaped by events of the 1960s. In these ten years, they went from defining the art, music and politics of a generation, to being outlawed amid terrifying headlines about “bad trips” and damaged minds. It

Last month was the hottest ever recorded on Earth. It is a fact that the planet is heating up and, without drastic action, the changing climate threatens to unleash a wave of global disasters. Human activities are responsible for this and, while we are taking some gradual steps to become greener, we still generate most of our energy by burning heat-trapping carbon. But what if, in addition to reducing our carbon dependency, we could undo some of the damage we’ve already in

From eyes that see over a million different colours to ears that detect a staggering range of frequencies, the human senses are incredible. But none can hold a candle to the most powerful part of our sensory system: the brain. The human brain does the most impressive feat of data analysis imaginable – decoding electrical impulses from all over the body and combining them to create the rich, multi-modal experience we call reality. But what if a connection fails, and a sense is

As technologies go, printing can feel fairly mundane and uninspiring. Sure, some impressive things are being done with 3D printing but that can feel pretty remote when you’re trying to fix yet another paper jam. What if I told you that printing might be on the verge of a huge breakthrough which would herald a revolution in medical science and save tens of thousands of lives a year? What if instead of just churning out paper and plastic, our printers could print… us? That’s th

Here’s a cheery question: what medical condition claims more lives than any other? The answer might surprise you. It’s not cancer, heart disease or strokes. It’s old age. That may sound a bit ridiculous – old age isn’t a disease, it’s just a fact of life. Right? But what if old age isn’t as inevitable as we think? Recent advances in medical science might help us to push back old age and even bring the idea of "eternal youth" out of the realm of fantasy and into the real world

The climate. You probably know a thing or two about where it's heading (somewhere bad), but you're not entirely sure how to improve it. After all, you're just one person. Do actions like recycling and using smart energy meters make that much difference? Is there a right and a wrong way to improve the environment? These questions and more are the focus of How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need, written by the one and only Bill Gat

Compared to Hollywood’s portrayal, life in the 21st century can sometimes feel a bit of a let-down. Where are the cities full of driverless cars? The hand-held lasers? The robotic killing machines who’ll stop at nothing to topple their human overlords? Ok, maybe not that last one... But what if some of these things are much closer to being realised than we thought? Enter LiDAR – short for Light Detection And Ranging. LiDAR scanners bounce laser beams off objects to calculate

How objective are you? Most of us like to think that we always make rational and fact-based decisions, but studies show that we are often swayed by unconscious biases. Thankfully we can rely on science to give us an objective and unbiased take on the world, with its robust, impartial research and cold, hard data. Or can we? It turns out the truth is a bit more complicated… In a recent iluli video, I explored how science and technology have reinforced inequalities in our socie

In the late 19th century, America was gripped by an engineering battle that would forever change the world. In the "war of the currents," inventors Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse (with some help from Nikola Tesla) raced to find the best way to bring electricity to cities and industries. Edison favoured a system called direct current (DC) while Westinghouse championed alternating current (AC). After a brutal fight, the latter won out, the world adopted AC, and the rest

Do you often find yourself endlessly scrolling your social media feeds for no apparent reason? You may have asked yourself "Why am I doing this?" The answer to that very 21st century question is likely to be a single naturally occurring chemical – dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter – a chemical that brain cells use to communicate with each other. It is released into the brain when we experience something pleasant or new and plays a big role in motivating behaviour. In t

For many of us, the concept of nuclear power can sound a bit scary. We hear the word "nuclear" and images of mushroom clouds, Chernobyl or other more recent disasters spring to mind. And it’s not a completely irrational response – when thing go wrong with nuclear, they go very wrong. But it got me wondering – might we take a more rounded view of the pros, cons and untapped potential of nuclear power if we had a better understanding of how it works? We set ourselves the chall

When you think of market research, you might picture wannabe-entrepreneurs from The Apprentice conducting their so-called “focus groups”; scrawling down notes about biscuit preferences from pre-school children and their parents.  Typically, contestants skirt over any negative feedback and continue full steam ahead with their nonsense concepts. It makes for great entertainment (“what were they thinking?!”) but does little for the reputation of customer research. Market resea

With temperatures continuing to rise around the world, it’s clear we’ll need to rely on something other than rain dances to fend off droughts.  That’s where 'cloud seeding' comes in – a type of weather modification that typically aims to increase the amount of rain or snow. According to a March 2021 article in The Guardian : Cloud seeding involves using aircraft or drones to add small particles of silver iodide, which have a structure similar to ice, to clouds. Water droplets

When I think of farming, I picture tractors, wellington boots, hay bales and an awful lot of hard work. A farm would be one of the last places I’d consider to be futuristic. But I’d be wrong. Agritech start-ups around the world are on a mission to reinvent farming. And yes, we’re talking robots. In December 2020, Intelligent Living published an article detailing how a two-acre vertical farm run by artificial intelligence and robots out-produced a 720-acre flat farm. That’s q

You’ll often hear about “must-watch” television: the latest water-cooler thriller from HBO or the long-awaited finale of insert generic celebrity “talent” show here . Rarely should these programmes be considered compulsory viewing. David Attenborough’s A Life on Our Planet , on the other hand, very much should be. I’d go as far as to say it should be mandatory for all school-age children to watch at least once. Yes, there are graphic scenes of death and destruction — the snip

If you’ve ever felt a lump in your throat listening to a piece of music, you’re far from alone. It’s a strange phenomenon — that the soft strumming of a guitar or sad sax solo can make you well up, especially without any prior connection to the tune. Sure, you’d expect a melancholy hymn from a funeral you attended to evoke such emotion, but what of a new track you’ve just heard on the radio? Or that Spotify has thrown up on a playlist? If you’ve seen The Holiday — a festive f

In November 2020, The Times published an article exposing the downsides of so-called “green prescriptions”, whereby patients are advised to participate in outdoor activities such as exercise classes, planting trees or visiting natural beauty spots. On paper, it seems like a sensible remedy. Studies have shown that spending time in green spaces helps to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes, premature death, stress and high blood pressure. Indeed, the issuing of “green prescript

Can you believe it’s been more than six months since that nail-biting US presidential election? For many of us “outsiders”, the choice between the two candidates seemed clear cut, but the incoming results proved anything but.  Onlookers around the globe endured a slow, tortuous few days glued to CNN and the like before the rightful victor was called. For anyone with only a passing interest in US politics, such a complex voting system can be incredibly confusing. The Guardian