BLOG

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

As company mantras go, Amazon’s "always day one" is a thinker. Does it infer progress is slow? That you’ll perpetually feel out of your depth? Perhaps a Groundhog Day of sorts, drowning in a sea of acronyms like ACS, ASIN and HOTW… On the contrary, those three words are considered to be inspirational. It’s the reason you’ll find "still day one" and the like on the LinkedIn posts of Amazonians celebrating their five, 10 and 15-year work anniversaries. It’s not a meaningless mo

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

If you were listing the innovators who had the biggest influence on the world in the past 50 years, the name Steve Jobs would likely come close to the top. You might be tapping out this list on the Notes app of your iPhone, or dictating it to Siri through your Apple Watch. Even if you don’t have a house full of products with a shiny fruit-based logo, Jobs’ impact transforming how we use computers and consume music, news and film in the 21st century is undeniable. 11 years on

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

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s been a lot of talk of folk leaving their jobs in record numbers. Professor Anthony Klotz from Texas A&M University dubbed this "The Great Resignation." It sounds dramatic – but did it actually happen? My explainer video below explores this question in greater depth... I’m fascinated by what the future of work might look like (something we also considered in the iluli explainer on Universal Basic Income ). The pandemic has accelera

In medical emergencies, every moment counts. That’s why innovations that can shave even fractions of a second off the time it takes someone to get life-saving treatment represents a massive leap forward. When it comes to organ transplantation, speed really is of the essence. According to the American Transplant Foundation , an average of 16 people die each day because they do not receive organs in time. What’s more, between 2014 and 2019 there were 370 “ near misses ” where

Spoiler alert: Yes, it’s already happening. Scorsese. Kubrick. Lynch. Anyone with the last name Coppola. Iconic directors invariably have a distinct style and vision that make their work easily recognisable. Chances are that even if you didn’t see the words "Directed by Quentin Tarantino" appear in the credits of a film, you’d still be able to identify the auteur through the kind of snappy dialogue, hammy violence and unique overall aesthetic seen on screen. Or would you? In

In years gone by, parents would worry about letting their children play out in the street. Nowadays, it’s the potential dangers lurking online that are just as likely to keep mums and dads awake at night. The explosion of games, apps, and video content has happened faster than regulators and the rest of us can possibly keep up with. In that respect, the internet is like the new Wild West. Some countries are now turning to facial recognition to identify the age of those consum

Picture a successful leader at the helm of a great company. What are the qualities that define them? You might now be thinking of a larger-than-life extrovert – someone who thrives on attention, has the charisma to command a room and likes to make a big noise. And it’s certainly true that some of the world’s most famous entrepreneurs are a good fit for this description. But what if I was to tell you that leading a company to greatness required the opposite qualities to this?

Thanks to social media, it has never been easier to connect with people from the past. Curious about what that old classmate is up to now? Their profile is only a couple of clicks away. What’s more, most of us now use our social media feeds as a kind of virtual photo album. If you’re of a certain age, then a scroll through the older photos will no doubt take you on a trip down memory lane which rekindles memories of long-forgotten nights out, old friends we lost touch with an

What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? It’s probably not a question you’ve had much cause to ponder until now. And if the question seems an unlikely one, you may be even more surprised to learn that, for Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, the answer can be found in economics. Or, to adopt the word they coined to title their seminal 2005 book and describe their field of study – Freakonomics. All of us know that economics is important but, if we’re being

Chatbots are proliferating rapidly thanks to advancements in AI. Most of us have come into contact with them, commonly in a customer service capacity. Formulaic responses aside, they can save a lot of time. Who wants to spend over an hour on hold, only to be hung up on? Chatbots mimic whatever information is fed to them. The result is a reflection of the integrity (or otherwise) of whoever programmed the information. Given the nefarious potential, it’s left some to question i

Proteins probably don’t weigh too heavily on your mind day to day. It’s ironic, given every single cell in your brain, and the rest of your body, is made up of a myriad of protein building blocks known as amino acids. A whopping 20,000 proteins are expressed by the human genome. The information needed to create these proteins is contained in the nuclei of our DNA. Now, scientists have discovered an intelligent method for reading these instructions. We’re just beginning to scr

What if we could predict the behaviour of bush and forest fires before they ever break out? Thanks to the bright sparks working away at some of the world’s most exciting startups and research institutions, breakthroughs in space technology could soon be setting the world ablaze – in a good way. As if we didn’t have enough on our plates, recent history has seen angry, ruthless blazes ripping through the natural environment like, well, wildfire. From Australia to the Amazon, Ca

A 2021 study by WWF found an area of forest totalling 43 million hectares – almost double the size of the UK – was wiped out in just 13 years across the world’s key deforestation hotspots. Unsurprisingly, commercial agriculture was found to be the leading cause of deforestation. The Amazon rainforest is approaching a tipping point, where scientists fear losing a further 5% of area could lead to runaway climate change. Finding a solution is now a race against time. Enter tech

There’s arguably no emotion more powerful than shame. From an early age, we learn the discomfort brought on by feelings of having done "wrong". Without the heaviness of shame, you might not know your behavior is unacceptable. Public shaming has undergone a digital renaissance, thanks in large part to Twitter and online social media commentary. If you don’t stand corrected, then fear not – someone out there is more than happy to step up to the task. The flip side of today’s tr

Do you struggle to remember what life was like pre-pandemic? You’re not alone. Nobody could have anticipated the speed of widespread digital transformation lived through from 2020 onwards, thanks to recurring lockdowns. Banana bread and DIY videos were the tip of the iceberg; the gaming, entertainment, and e-commerce sectors witnessed accelerated growth, in a way previously inconceivable. QR codes became de rigueur. Cash has all but disappeared. TikTok exploded. The question

Pre-pandemic, ideas to improve work-life balance were often abstractions floated by leaders, who could get away with paying them only occasional lip service. However, COVID-19 and the ensuing lockdowns provided a stark assessment of employees’ working conditions. "The Great Resignation" worker exodus has sent many employers into a tailspin. As businesses scramble for incentives to retain staff and attract job seekers, the idea of a four-day working week is gaining traction. A

Going to the cinema in the late 20th century would have been a very different experience without the acting talent of Mr. Val Kilmer. With iconic roles in everything from blockbusters like Top Gun (1986), Batman Forever (1995) and Heat (1995), to cult classics like True Romance (1993), Kilmer’s voice was one of the sounds of the 80s and 90s.  Now, after a painful battle with throat cancer, scientists have been able to use a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and