There are a few absolute gems of websites that manage to surprise you each time you visit, and Randall Munroe’s xkcd is consistently brilliant. This one, from March 2014, highlights beautifully how humanity is essentially parasitic upon the mammalian species we have domesticated: cows, pigs, sheep. And if you’ve not already stumbled across it, his ‘what if?’ blog is also exceptional.
Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.
In December 2013, the US Library of Congress hosted a panel discussion on whether the longevity of human civilisation will be imperilled or enhanced by world-changing technologies. A broad spectrum of fascinating thinkers were assembled, including scientists, humanists, journalists and science-fiction authors. Watch the debate on YouTube here.
Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.
Some things in the first draft were clearly never going to make it past the editors, including this adaptation of an Alan Bennet quote (from The History Boys)…
Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.
The US publishers, The Penguin Press, came up with this design for the book cover. I really like this concept – I think it neatly encapsulates the core theme of The Knowledge about how you can learn to do and build essential things to support yourself, if you ever needed to. The graphic illustrates the progression from the most basic materials of sticks and stones, through to spinning gathered fibres into your own ropes, and reinventing the battery or constructing a wind turbine from scavenged components. But when The Penguin Press team saw the UK cover from Bodley Head they decided they preferred the simplicity and elegance of the design (and to be honest, I agree too) and also adopted it for their publication. So unfortunately this imaginative composition will never see the light of day, but it does mean that The Knowledge is published across the English-speaking world with exactly the same title and front cover – something that rarely happens.
Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.
I took part in an event called the End of the World Cabaret in Oxford on 12th December, along with some very talented science communicators including Dr Sarah Bearchell (Facebook page: Sarah’s Adventures in Science).
Sarah does a lot of outreach work with children. She says, “We do science together. It’s immensely rewarding and often (inadvertently) hilarious.” In preparation for her set at the science cabaret, Sarah asked children “How do you think the world will end?”, and we also circulated a call for help on The Knowledge website. Here’s what Sarah says about the results of this survey. My favourite idea for the end of the world is not an armageddon, but a Monty-Python-inspired footageddon…
“Lots of the children were worried about ebola and other diseases. A global pandemic would certainly cause of societal breakdown. However, the children also came up with other ideas, some based on actual facts, and others not…”
There are some great episodes of Dr Who in there, but I think the most random comment I got was from a seven year old boy who said that “The world will be destroyed by a giant FOOT!”
Dr Sarah Bearchell
Sarah’s Adventures in Science
Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.
The start-point for the thought experiment that is The Knowledge is a post-apocalyptic world where survivors must rebuild civilisation from scratch. But another way of setting that back-to-basics question is as a cheat sheet for a time traveler. If you were to go back 100, or 1,000, or 10,000 years, what crucial knowledge would you want to take with you to accelerate history as much as possible? What hints on science and technology would be relevant to different ages? This same idea is delivered very nicely in a design of time travelers’ essentials, which I believe first appeared as a t-shirt:
…and is also available as a high-res poster here. There are flaws in the execution. For example, the Wright brothers struggled with far more than just the shape of an aerofoil wing – building airframes and power sources light enough, and figuring out moveable surfaces to control the first aircraft are just as critical. And providing the chemical formula of an alternative to progesterone for birth-control pills as “C20H26O2“, without any hint of the actual molecular structure or how to synthesise it, is useless. But the idea of a time travelers’ cheat sheet is a great one.
Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.
During the scavenging and repurposing phase of the Grace Period after an apocalypse you can use ingenious solutions for keeping your lifestyle electrified. And as my How-To video shows, using the process of electrolysis will also offer a handy method for producing crucial chemical substances. The motor in a washing machine can be used to generate electricity from a simple water turbine such as a Pelton wheel, which looks like a circular splay of spoons (as in the image on the right, and watch this video for a great explanation on how the Pelton turbine works).
Here’s how to convert a washing machine motor into a generator.
Also check out The Knowledge posts on How to convert a ceiling fan into a wind generator, How To make your own wind turbine and the Estream portable water turbine.
Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.
The arrangement of magnets and coils in a large ceiling fan is particularly well suited to being reappropriated into generating electricity from a make-shift wind turbine. Here’s how. Also check out The Knowledge posts on How to convert a washing machine motor into a generator, How To make your own wind turbine and the Estream portable water turbine.
Want to read more about the behind-the-scenes fundamentals of how our modern world works, and how you could reboot civilisation if you ever needed to...? Check out The Knowledge - available now in paperback, Kindle and audiobook.