Jul 2, 2026 · 30 min
Scientists preserve fossils, model lightning and test football’s home advantage
How do you immortalise natural history?
The episode shows how new tools and unusual real-world experiments can expose hidden patterns in nature, technology and sport.
- 13D and CT scanning turn fossils into shareable digital specimens while revealing patterns of macroevolution.
- 2Robots still struggle with physical tasks because intelligence must account for objects, forces and the wider world.
- 3Lightning research, climate projections and empty-stadium football data all test how evidence reshapes familiar assumptions.
Don't miss
Daniel Mitchard witnesses a simulated 100,000-amp lightning strike at Cardiff University’s Lightning Laboratory.
The brief
At the Royal Society, Tom Whipple moves from the preservation of natural history to the limits of physical robotics, asking how technology changes what science can observe.
Laura Porro, Fernando Alvares and Alice Levy explain how 3D surface scans and high-resolution CT images create digital specimens and expose macroevolutionary patterns in sea urchin fossils.
Ingmar Posner describes why robots can excel at some forms of AI yet still struggle to pick up objects, because physical competence requires a model of the world.
At Cardiff University’s Lightning Laboratory, Daniel Mitchard explains how lightning forms and why climate change is expected to increase its frequency, before a simulated 100,000-amp strike.
James Gallagher examines football’s home advantage through pandemic-era empty stadiums, using an unusual natural experiment to test how much crowds influence results.
Royal Society
Isaac NewtonListen to the full episode and explore every guest, topic, and moment on PodLume.