Tom Scott

Drug tests don’t just work as a buzzkill, they can keep doctors and patients honest regarding some of the more dangerous drugs known to man. The problem is, poppy seeds can throw a giant wrench in that circle of trust! Poppy seeds come from the papaver somniferum flower native to Turkey, and even though they don’t contain opium, consuming the seeds has historically caused the tests to register opiate use! In this video, I explore how these tests work, what they look for, and how something as simple as a bottle of seeds available at any grocery store, can cause a false positive for painkillers, heroin, morphine, and other drugs.

Turns out that trying to precisely detect fire from space is more difficult than "point a camera at it".

And, please don't try this at home.

Dead Horse Bay served as an unofficial dump for decades, and now as the sand is washed away the boroughs' history is slowly being revealed, one china plate and glass bottle at a time. It's popular with local archeologists (both ameteur "treasure hunters" and professionals) as they wade through New York City's past. But this year, a darker side of the city's history has emerged: traces of radon gas and gamma radiation exceeding ambient levels. As parts of the beach have been closed off, locals are worried: will their artifacts and their history now just wash out to sea? And when trash becomes treasured, do we have a responsibility to preserve it?

Torpenhow Hill, in the Lake District in the north-west of England, is the only place in the world whose name has the same word four different times. That's the story, anyway. The truth is a bit more complex.

Around the world, there are regulations for "influencers". Those regulations make sure that if someone is paid to endorse a product, they have to declare that payment to the people watching. But why does no-one on TV, or film, or anywhere else have to do that?

I didn't expect this to work so well. • Includes text generated by OpenAI's GPT-3 at my request

4 minutes remaining. Then 15 seconds. Then 5 hours. Why can't computers just tell you how long something's going to take?

Explosions on film are made to look good: fireballs and flame. In reality, though, they're a bit disappointing. Here's how Hollywood does it. • Produced with an experienced, professional pyrotechnician. Do not attempt. Thanks to Steve from Live Action FX!

On the south-east coast of England sits Covehithe: a little Suffolk village going back at least a thousand years. By the end of the century, it'll likely have fallen into the sea. Here's why no-one's planning to save it.

Shakespeare sounds a certain way. Why? And why could it only work in English? • Written with Gretchen McCulloch of Lingthusiasm!

I didn't even realise that "low explosives" were a thing; let's talk about deflagration, detonation, and how high explosives can actually be safer. • Thanks to Steve from Live Action FX!

"Life support system" were the three key words that convinced me to do a video about an aquarium. Because yes: behind the scenes at The Deep, an aquarium in Hull, there's a life support system, and it deserves that name.

Grey? Blue? Purple? It can look different, depending on the context. Let's talk about color perception, color temperature, and the history of laundry.

GPT-3: not quite up to the task. Yet.

In Knaresborough, in Yorkshire, sits Mother Shipton's Cave. Folks there have been charging admission for nearly 400 years, and the star of the show is a "petrifying well". A few folk legends do actually turn out to be true.

Wind turbines have emergency exits, but they might not be for the reason you think.

Perranporth Beach, in Cornwall, is famed for being the "Lego beach". The truth is more complicated.

I found an article that said "The microwave was invented to heat hamsters humanely in 1950s experiments." And I thought, no it wasn't. ...was it?

Decades before NASA's Apollo program, the British Interplanetary Society wanted to go to the moon: in a spacesuit that looked like a suit of armour.

Gruinard Island, in the north-west of Scotland, was where Britain tested its biological weapons. That story's been told many times: but I found something in the archives that I don't think anyone's ever noticed before.

In Glenelg, on the west coast of Scotland, there's the Skye Ferry: the last turntable ferry in the world. And the reason for that turntable is a lot more clever than I initially thought.

Barra Airport, in Na h-Eileanan Siar in the west of Scotland, is unique: it's the only commercial airport where the runway's made of sand, and tide covers it up twice a day. Here's how it works.

Around the old mining areas of North Wales, you can find rock cannon: old Welsh firework sites. Most of the world has never heard of them: so we recreated them on a test range. • Thanks to Steve from Live Action FX: http://liveactionfx.com/ • Thanks to Owain for the idea!

What do you do with a disused phone box? And can they help save lives?

In Ocado's grocery warehouses, thousands of mechanical boxes move on the Hive. Are they all individual robots? Or is this one giant hive mind?

In Claughton, Lancashire, the Forterra brickworks produces 50 million bricks a year, from shale that's quarried a mile and a half away. To get that shale to the brickworks: the last aerial ropeway in the country. These used to be common: but now, the last one will be gone by 2036.

Here's the full video from a camera attached to a bucket on the Claughton Aerial Ropeway!

Iceland has a new volcano, Fagradalsfjall: I wanted to visit, to talk about the infrastructure around it, and work out how the country deals with a new and dangerous tourist attraction. It didn't go well.

On the German coast of the Baltic Sea, there's a tourist attraction that I think is very strange: the "Tauchgondel", a room that sinks under the waves and lets you go diving... without getting wet.

Tower Bridge is a tourist attraction these days: but first and foremost, it's a working, lifting bridge. And river traffic comes first.

Ness of Brodgar, in Orkney, is one of the most important archaeological sites in western Europe. This week, it was covered by old, worn-out tires. Here's why.

The Orkney Islands, off the northern tip of Scotland, have so much electricity that it's actually a problem. Here's why: and here's what they're doing about it. • This video has a correction: Hornsdale Power Reserve didn't catch fire! It was the newer Victorian Big Battery, near Geelong. Complete blunder on my part, apologies to the Hornsdale team.

The flight between Papa Westray and Westray takes 80-90 seconds and covers about 2km. Why does it exist? And what's it like? On a rainy day in the Orkney Islands, I went to find out.

NERC's Space Geodesy Facility, hidden away in the English countryside, fires lasers at satellites. Because it turns out that knowing a satellite's position exactly is really, really difficult.

Over the Manchester Ship Canal, you'll find the Hulmes Ferry, the Thelwall Ferry, and the Warburton Toll Bridge. They're all strange in their own way, all under the control of one company, and all dating back to old laws and legal documents from a hundred years ago. I was in the area, so I stopped by, and found that things might be changing soon.

The Nürburgring Nordschleife is the longest permanent racetrack in the world: 21km of unforgiving blind corners and hills, nicknamed "the Green Hell". Oh, and some days, it's also just a public toll road with no speed limit.

In Darmstadt, Germany, there's the Eisenbahnbetriebsfeld: a model railway connected to actual railway signalling equipment, so that controllers can learn without putting any real trains in danger. I got to learn the very basics.

An elevator that can go smoothly from horizontal to vertical isn't possible... right? Turns out that the conventional wisdom is wrong, and the Schmid Peoplemover has been doing that for many years.

On a little canal off the Elbe river in Germany, sits the McBoat: the world's only paddle-through McDonalds. It seemed like the sort of thing I should investigate.

The Brünnlisau shooting range in Switzerland has its targets on the other side of a major road. And it's safe. Here's how and why. Thanks to everyone at the Schiessanlage Brünnlisau!

In Lübeck, Germany, there's one of several eHighway test projects: overhead catenary wires, where electric trucks with pantographs can pull power directly from the grid. Thanks to everyone who gave so much time to make this video possible!

At a pumped storage plant in western Austria, a company called Energy Robotics is testing robot dogs for inspection. All the fancy Boston Dynamics publicity stunts aside: are the robots actually useful? ■ As ever: this is not an advert, Energy Robotics and illwerke vkw had no editorial control. They just asked "do you want to fly your drone inside the Obervermuntwerk II hydroelectric power plant to film a robot dog", and of course I immediately said yes.

In Brienz/Brinzauls, a small village in the east of Switzerland, there's a village slipping into a valley and a road that's surprisingly dangerous. Thanks to everyone I interviewed: pull down the description for links and more details!

The Lorenbahn, the Lüttmoorsiel-Nordstrandischmoor island railway, is famous for the tiny, private trains that take residents to and from the mainland. But that's not why it was built: and it's got a more useful purpose as well. Thanks to everyone from Landesbetrieb für Küstenschutz, Nationalpark und Meeresschutz Schleswig-Holstein, and to the islanders, for all your time and patience!

In most of the world, inhaling radon for pain relief sounds like a bizarre idea. In some places, though, it's so accepted that it's prescribed by doctors and covered by health insurance. And I have no idea how to talk about it. Thanks to the team at the Radonstollen in Bad Kreuznach: you can find out more about them at https://www.acuradon.com

Bridgwater Carnival, in Somerset, has a long tradition of squibbing: a huge procession of people holding fireworks right above their heads. This year, I got the chance to be one of the squibbers. Thanks to all the Bridgwater Carnival team: their site is https://www.bridgwatercarnival.org.uk/

At $8.3 million dollars for around 40 milligrams, the British Guiana 1c magenta is the world's most expensive object by weight: it's a postage stamp from 1856, the only one of its kind.

The Thames Barrier is a wonder of engineering. If it fails, then London floods. Here's how the engineers there make sure it doesn't fail.

Electrical Network Frequency analysis, ENF analysis, matches background hum against power grid logs. I talked to one of the researchers who works on it, and also set them a challenge.

I invited Rohin from @MedlifeCrisis, Sophie from @SophsNotes, @MikeBoyd, Sam from @Wendoverproductions, and @MiaMulder to play some games. They'll be tempted by individual profit over group wealth, in an environment designed to slowly break their team apart. But all they knew is: they'd be sat around a table trying to win cash: over $10,000. This is a show about trust, about loyalty... and about Money.