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Despite decades of development and billions invested, Virtual Reality (VR) has struggled to find a place in our daily lives. But with tech giants betting big on the next generation of headsets like the Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest, could this finally be the moment VR breaks through? Watch my short explainer to find out more: False starts and flops Picture the scene: a revolutionary new VR device transports users into a fully immersive, hyper-realistic world where they can

Malcolm Gladwell's turn-of-the-millennium book,  The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference , delves into the pivotal moment when an idea or trend explodes into public consciousness and spreads rapidly. From fashion and smoking to television and crime, Gladwell examines the small sparks that ignite big change. Does he occasionally stray into the realm of fiction? Perhaps. But he also showcases his talent as a captivating storyteller, skilfully weaving toge

If you ever need clear evidence of a business's success, look for when its brand name becomes so ingrained in everyday language that it replaces a verb. Not convinced? You can Google it. It’s one of the reasons why many were perplexed by Twitter’s rebranding – millions of us “tweeted” daily, but when was the last time you “Xd”?   This puts Netflix in a rather unique linguistic and cultural, er, position, thanks to the phrase “ Netflix and Chill ” entering the lexicon as far b

“To understand life, we need to understand proteins,” said New Scientist magazine in July 2022. And yet, if we’re being honest, the topic of “protein folding” doesn’t sound all that exciting to most of us. Compare it to black holes, quantum computing or gene editing. You don’t need much prior knowledge of any of these to get a sense that they are thrilling developments at the cutting edge of science. But proteins? Well… To the uninitiated, protein equals nutrition. Important

Have you made the switch to electric yet? One of the challenges preventing more people from adopting electric vehicles is concern over battery life and charging capacity. Often referred to as "range anxiety," this is the fear of whether the car will reach the next charging station in time.   And even if you make it, will the charger actually work? The current charging infrastructure still leaves much to be desired, often forcing drivers to go miles out of their way to find a

Certain aspects of life become so ingrained in our daily routines that we hardly notice them.   Not too long ago, this could easily have described smoking. For much of the 20th century, smoking was so widespread that many people smoked hundreds of cigarettes a week, with a cigarette often feeling like an extension of the hand.   But changes in laws, culture, and attitudes – alongside the rise of vaping – have transformed this once-common routine into something that could feel

If you’re hoping for a play-by-play of Sir Alex Ferguson’s tenure at Manchester United, you’ve come to the wrong place. The term “red teaming” has nothing to do with football.    Instead, I’m talking about Bryce Hoffman’s 2017 book: Red Teaming: Transform Your Business by Thinking Like the Enemy , described as: "A revolutionary new way to make critical and contrarian thinking part of the planning process of any organisation, allowing companies to stress-test their strategies,

I don’t know about you, but I can't hear The Rolling Stones' Start Me Up without picturing Bill Gates and his Microsoft pals throwing some shapes at the Windows '95 launch. Aside from the second-hand embarrassment it gives me, it also goes some way to explaining why I hear strains of Keith Richards’ legendary guitar riff whenever the word “startup” is uttered.   In his 2011 book The Lean Startup , author Eric Ries defines a startup as: “any human institution designed to cre

Ken Kocienda, a veteran Apple software engineer and designer, played a crucial role in developing the Safari web browser, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. In his 2018 book, Creative Selection: Inside Apple’s Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Job s, he offers an unparalleled insider’s perspective on Apple’s creative processes during this amazing era of breakthrough products. The phrase “creative selection” is Kocienda’s spin on “natural selection,” emphasising how Ap

Rarely does a day go by in recent times without the words "Elon Musk" popping up on our newsfeeds. And, for better or worse, his influence on our lives is unmistakable: Teslas are commonplace, Twitter is now known as "X" and half of all active satellites in orbit right now are from the SpaceX stable. But amongst the controversy surrounding him, there remains a fascinating tale about someone who was prepared to challenge conventional wisdom and refuse to take "no" for an answ

Why do we measure things? That might seem like a silly question until you consider just how much we do it. From population data and GDP to steps and screentime, we measure almost every aspect of our lives. And the reason we do this is always the same – to make things better. But what if our obsession with measuring things is actually making things worse? Watch my short explainer to find out more: The metric minefield A metric is basically a system for measuring something and

When you think about the word "failure," what comes to mind? Embarrassment? Shame? Catastrophe? It’s unlikely the term conjures up any positive connotations.   And yet, Matthew Syed’s 2015 book Black Box Thinking asks us to consider failure as a starting point for making things better.   Black box thinking is a mindset named after the black box recorder fitted to every aircraft. Just as the black box in an aeroplane is there to be salvaged after a crash – to review flight da

When’s the last time you checked social media? Or were distracted by an incoming email alert? Or answered the siren call for your third frothy coffee of the day mid-task? It’s a wonder we ever get anything done!   But that’s life as we know it – teeming with distractions. You’re lucky if you get 20 minutes to think straight on that *very important project that must be completed today.*   Thankfully, author and professor of computer science Cal Newport has a solution: "deep wo

Can you believe iluli turned five (!!) in March? I was so oblivious to the rapid passage of time that the landmark date completely passed me by – until late April, that is, when a Webby Award or two came a-knocking.   Yes, you read that right! Having been a nominee and honouree on multiple occasions, 2024 was the year we finally won, securing both the Jury and the People’s Voice awards for best video in the Health & Wellness category. The video that did the business? Magic

What’s the most destructive weather you can think of? Chances are that solar storms aren’t what you picture. But perhaps they should be. The Sun doesn’t just send heat and light our way. It also belches out a colourful variety of destructive forces, including solar winds and phenomena known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – giant coiling magnetic fields carrying a dense plasma of energetic particles tens of thousands of kilometres wide. Thanks to Earth's magnetic field, our

How do you feel about machines tracking your emotions? Imagine if your phone could sense that you’re feeling stressed, and it responded by recommending a meditation app. The rapid rise of emotion recognition technology means this could soon be a reality. If AI-powered tech can learn to recognise and respond to our emotions, the potential will be huge. But so are the concerns. And that’s before we get to the really big question: can this technology actually work?  Watch my sho

The global population is expected to pass 10 billion within the next few decades. That means we’ll have doubled the number of people on the planet in less than 100 years. As a result, the world faces an existential dilemma: how do we boost production to feed billions more people while reducing agriculture’s negative impact on the environment?  For thousands of years, farming has been central to human civilisation. But the looming "population bomb" means we’re going to need so

ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini – formerly known as Bard – can plan parties, write stories, hold conversations and pass exams. These incredible Large Language Model (LLM) systems might look like the all-knowing AI promised by science fiction. But they are not.  As powerful, impressive and revolutionary as they are, LLMs are essentially elaborate bluffing systems which use statistics to piece sentences together. It is only by understanding how these systems work that we will get t

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

Philosophers Andy Clark and David Chalmers once argued that anything we use to help us think or remember becomes more than just a tool – it’s part of our " extended mind " . Ancient civilizations extended their minds with clay tablets. Our parents’ and grandparents’ generations relied on notebooks and filofaxes. Today, we have supercharged access to information through the incredible processing power of our digital devices. The possibilities for our extended minds should be a