That age-old dilemma of choosing between having a non-sweltering car or baffling a passerby because you look like a fool who doesn’t know how to use a door
It is literally roasting down there
A live AB test! Took the music off to see if it sorts the audio issues some people are having The story comes from Donald Rethke (aka Dr. Flush) the engineer who worked on the life support system designs for the Apollo missions. Michael Collins (Apollo 11) also mentions it in his book, but by his time the sizes were referred to as “extra large, immense, and unbelievable” – seems even astronauts need an ego boost from time to time!
And also WE DON’T KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENS. Or why. It’s just one of those delicious scientific mysteries 🌿
Would YOU push the button? Just think: The challenges of the disengaged mind, by T Wilson, D Reinhard, E Westgate, D Gilbert, N Ellerbeck, C Hahn, C Brown, and A Shaked (2015)
Don’t get me wrong – even though you only have to be a little bit better than your opponent, you have to maintain that little bit for hours upon hours, while also overcoming the mental torture of an emotional rollercoaster. The players at the top of their game are hugely impressive – even if the margins of difference between them are fascinatingly small.
Also, studies into fracture mechanics (the way a crack releases the built-up tension in the material) found that the stress in the contracting rock is most efficiently relieved by three fractures meeting at 120 degree angles. So while the initial cracks are all over the place, they eventually settle into the path of least resistance – hexagons. Why Hexagonal Basalt Columns? by M Hofmann, R Anderssohn, H-A Bahr, H-J Weiss, and J Nellesen (2015)
James Harrison often downplayed his efforts, saying “it’s really not that hard to sit in a chair for a bit and then have a cup of tea and a biscuit” But I think that sort of life-long selfless dedication to others makes him an absolute legend ⭐
A moment of silence for Navier-Stokes Read it for yourselves here: Discovery of Unstable Singularities by Yongji Wang et al (2025)
Two households, both alike in dignity… Mice infected with low-virulence strains of Toxoplasma gondii lose their innate aversion to cat urine, even after extensive parasite clearance, by Wendy Marie Ingram, Leeanne M. Goodrich, Ellen A. Robey, and Michael B. Eisen (2013)
The story comes from Donald Rethke (aka Dr. Flush) the engineer who worked on the life support system designs for the Apollo missions. Michael Collins (Apollo 11) also mentions it in his book, but by his time the informal sizes were referred to as “extra large, immense, and unbelievable” – seems even astronauts need an ego boost from time to time!
I’ve obviously simplified the actual study! It’s been replicated many times over but if you want to read the original: Attachment, exploration, and separation: Illustrated by the behavior of one-year-olds in a strange situation by M.D.S. Ainsworth and S. M. Bell (1970) or the book that came after: Patterns of attachment: a psychological study of the strange situation by M.D.S. Ainsworth, M.C. Blehar, E. Waters, and S. Wall (1978)
One of the 1924 New York campaigns even involved hiring people dressed as clowns to march down the middle of the road while being rammed repeatedly by a slow-moving Model T🚶♀️🚗
Bluff bodies are also often called by another name – but I’m not sure if that’s one of those sorts of words that get you banned 😬 🫢 If you want to go deeper down this rabbit hole (and who wouldn’t!?), a great start is Facing the Heat Barrier: A History of Hypersonics by T.A. Heppenheimer (2006)
Hannah Fry on the early design of driverless cars — and how we can design technology to fill in the gaps we have as human operators.
Could AI help unlock nature’s secrets? 🌍 From mapping forests to decoding animal communication, we’re harnessing AI to bridge critical information gaps in our planet’s diverse ecosystems. 🌳 Listen to our Nature Lead Drew Purves and podcast host @fryrsquared discuss AI’s potential to help the natural world, via the link in bio. 🔗
Could AI help unlock nature’s secrets? 🌍 From mapping forests to decoding animal communication, we’re harnessing AI to bridge critical information gaps in our planet’s diverse ecosystems. 🌳 Listen to our Nature Lead Drew Purves and podcast host @fryrsquared discuss AI’s potential to help the natural world, via the link in bio. 🔗
“It’s just a neural network that’s predicting every single pixel.” 👾 Our podcast host @fryrsquared is joined by Jack Parker-Holder and Shlomi Fruchter to dive deeper into Genie 3: a groundbreaking world model that can generate interactive environments from a simple text prompt. Watch their conversation through the link in bio. 🔗
The ambition at Isomorphic Labs is immense – they’re rethinking drug discovery from the ground up, using AI. 💊 Join Head of Medicinal Drug Design Rebecca Paul & Chief AI Officer Max Jaderberg as they share the possibilities of AI in tackling disease, with host Professor @fryrsquared. Watch their discussion on our podcast via the link in bio 🔗
The ambition at Isomorphic Labs is immense – they’re rethinking drug discovery from the ground up, using AI. 💊 Join Head of Medicinal Drug Design Rebecca Paul & Chief AI Officer Max Jaderberg as they share the possibilities of AI in tackling disease, with host Professor @fryrsquared. Watch their discussion on our podcast via the link in bio 🔗
From clumsy movements to dexterous manipulation – how did robotics make such significant leaps? 🤖 Tune into our podcast episode with @fryrsquared and Carolina Parada – our Senior Director and Head of Robotics – to explore how our robots can see, understand, and reason about the world around them. Watch their discussion on our podcast via the link in bio 🔗
From clumsy movements to dexterous manipulation – how did robotics make such significant leaps? 🤖 Tune into our podcast episode with @fryrsquared and Carolina Parada – our Senior Director and Head of Robotics – to explore how our robots can see, understand, and reason about the world around them. Watch their discussion on our podcast via the link in bio 🔗
From clumsy movements to dexterous manipulation – how did robotics make such significant leaps? 🤖 Tune into our podcast episode with @fryrsquared and Carolina Parada – our Senior Director and Head of Robotics – to explore how our robots can see, understand, and reason about the world around them. Watch their discussion on our podcast via the link in bio 🔗
I sat down with @fryrsquared to chat probabilities, the future of technology, and how storytelling can stop dumb designers.
