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?

Pull down the description for thorough references and credits.

Thanks to James Lovelock for his time! His latest book is Novacene: amzn.to/3hmKsWz [that is, of course, an Amazon affiliate link]

Filmed safely: www.tomscott.com/safe/ - thanks to jabs, PCR tests, isolation and distancing.

I did consider whether to do an extended interview with Dr Lovelock, but the Science Museum has already done far better than I ever could:

On cyborgs, asteroids and Gaia theory:    • James Lovelock on NASA, cyborgs, Invention...  

On his greatest epiphany:    • James Lovelock discusses his greatest epip...  

An extended 90-minute interview from the Lovelock Centenary Conference:    • Tim Lenton interviews James Lovelock  

REFERENCES:

HISTORY OF THE MICROWAVE:
I Burrell, in the Independent, 1997: "Your money, or the cat gets microwaved": www.independent.co.uk/news/your-money-or-the-cat-g…
M Blitz, "The Amazing True Story of How the Microwave Was Invented by Accident": www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a19567…
E Schliephake, "Ultra-short waves in medicine" in Short Wave Craft, Vol. 3, No. 11, March 1933, p. 646 [PDF]: worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Short-Wave-Televisio…
E Ackerman, "A Brief History of the Microwave Oven", IEEE Spectrum: spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/space-age/a-brief-h…

Radarange photo from Acroterion: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NS_Savannah_microw… - image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

James Lovelock in 1962: Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images

PAPERS FROM NIMR:
A Smith, J Lovelock, A Parkes, 1954: Resuscitation of Hamsters after Supercooling or Partial Crystallization at Body Temperatures Below 0° C.. Nature 173, 1136–1137. doi.org/10.1038/1731136a0
R K Andjus, J E Lovelock, 1955: Reanimation of rats from body temperatures between 0 and 1° C by microwave diathermy. The Journal of Physiology, 128. doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.1955.sp005323
Lovelock, J E, Smith A U, 1959, Heat transfer from and to animals in experimental hypothermia and freezing. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 80: 487-499. doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1959.tb49226.x

🟥 MORE FROM TOM: www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)

📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: www.tomscott.com/newsletter/
❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: lateralcast.com/ youtube.com/lateralcast/
➕ TOM SCOTT PLUS: youtube.com/tomscottplus
👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: youtube.com/techdif