Author | Lightnews

How Amateurs Outsmarted the Intelligence Agencies: The Science of Superforecasters

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Sep 1

“Superforecasters” have proven there is a science to predicting the future 👀🔮

The latest iluli video explores:

❌ Why predictions fail
📈 How the Good Judgment Project changed the game
✅ Habits to think like a superforecaster

Ready to level up your foresight? Watch now 👇

youtu.be/W9sFZkYqvLo

YouTube video by iluli by Mike Lamb

youtu.be

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Aug 22

⚡️ Romans used electric fish to cure headaches.

⚡️ Nikola Tesla believed electrified classrooms would make children smarter.

⚡️ Today brain-zapping headsets are being used to treat depression.

📖 Exploring the strange history and promising future of neurostimulation: open.substack.com/pub/iluli/p/...

Electric Minds

How neurostimulation could transform mental health (and maybe even make us smarter)

Can technology fix everything?

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Aug 11

🧦 Bluetooth socks

🥶 Smart fridges

🚨 Predictive policing

💸 Faulty welfare algorithms

There’s a tech "solution" for virtually everything. But do they always help?

The latest iluli newsletter explores what happens when solutions create new problems.

open.substack.com/pub/iluli/p/...

Maybe there’s not always “an app for that”...

Boost Your Brain With… Electricity? ⚡️🧠

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Aug 10

Would you use electricity to improve your brain?

Neurostimulation devices are helping to treat depression, anxiety and more. There’s now evidence they can boost cognitive performance too.

Should we be excited? Or worried? This month’s iluli video takes a look: www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V6C...

YouTube video by iluli by Mike Lamb

www.youtube.com

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Jul 25

Should you trust your gut instinct?

Intuition can be incredibly powerful. But it can also mislead us. In the latest iluli newsletter, we explore:

✨ Life-saving hunches

🧠 Fast vs slow thinking

⚠️ Biases and blind spots

✔️ A checklist for better decisions

open.substack.com/pub/iluli/p/...

When to Trust Your Gut (and When to Ignore It)

The science-backed guide to smarter intuition

How Vera Rubin Transformed Astronomy

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Jun 24

🌌 A telescope that can spot a golf ball on the Moon.
📸 Images so detailed, you'd need 400 Ultra HD TVs to see just one.

@vrubinobs.bsky.social just dropped its first images – and they're stunning. But who was Vera Rubin? And why does dark matter... matter?

🔗 substack.com/home/post/p-...

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has just unveiled the most detailed view of the universe ever seen

substack.com

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iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Jun 23

In 2024, Sonos rolled out an app update that broke multi-room sound systems – a textbook product fail.

The latest iluli blog unpacks what went wrong, and how four key lessons from Inspired by @martycagan.bsky.social could have helped avoid it.

www.iluli.eu/post/inspire...

#tech #sonos #blog

Inspired Thinking: What Sonos Got Wrong

How often have you come across a terrible piece of technology and wondered how it ever made it past the drawing board? Buttons in weird places. Features you’ll never use. Options you need but can’t fi...

Can We Build Jurassic Park Yet?

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Jun 16

🦖 Jurassic Park? Not happening.
🦣 A gene-edited woolly mammoth? Maybe...
🦤 A dodo comeback? It’s being worked on.

Dive into the wild world of de-extinction:
www.iluli.eu/post/can-we-...

#science #deextinction #colossal

More than thirty years ago, Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park captivated audiences with its amber-encased DNA, lab-grown dinosaurs, and a franchise so enduring even Dr. Ian “life, uh… finds a way” Malc...

The Placebo Paradox: When Fake Medicine Works 💊

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Jun 1

Can a fake be just as good as the real thing? 🤔 When it comes to medicine, the placebo effect says... maybe.

Watch the explainer to find out more 👇
youtu.be/tiGRfr66TjI

#placebo #medicalmystery

YouTube video by iluli by Mike Lamb

youtu.be

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · May 30

🎯 Are you chasing rewards – or driven by something deeper?

In his bestselling book Drive, Daniel Pink challenges old ideas about what truly motivates us. Spoiler: it’s not about carrots and sticks.

Find out more in my latest blog: iluli.eu/post/stick-y...

#Purpose #Motivation

Stick Your Carrots: Why Purpose Beats Perks

Back in the days of cavemen, motivation was as primal as it gets: eat, drink, mate – and try not to get trampled by a woolly mammoth.Jump ahead to the Industrial Revolution, and things changed. Work b...

The Radical Idea That Might Just Work

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Apr 26

🌍 More GDP. More growth. More… problems?

Trees don’t carry on growing forever. What if economies shouldn’t either? 

The latest iluli Substack newsletter dives into Degrowth - the radical idea to overhaul economics and save the planet.

📰 open.substack.com/pub/iluli/p/...

Could ending economic growth save the planet? 🌍

Taylor Swift, Bill Gates, The Beatles… are the most successful people just lucky?

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iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Apr 5

Most of us tell white lies. But what happens when dishonesty hits science? 🧪

In the superconductor sphere, the pressure to deliver breakthroughs has sparked a cycle of hype and hoaxes.

What’s driving the desperation? And how could a real superconductor change the world?

🎥 youtu.be/MIhG_mtl02k

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 28

What do the most successful people have in common? Is it talent? Hard work? Or luck?

The new iluli newsletter explores the real formula for success — and reveals what science can tell us about how to improve our own luck.

✨ Free to read here: iluli.substack.com/p/how-to-be-...

How to Be Lucky

iluli.substack.com

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iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 14

Happy 146th birthday to Albert Einstein! 🎉

His theory of special relativity says time slows down if you move incredibly fast. But forget 88 mph – you’d need near-light-speed to travel into the future!

#factoftheday #didyouknow #timetravel

Why Nutritional Science is So Confusing

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 13

The coldest temperature ever recorded at ground level on Earth was -89.2°C in 1983 at the high-altitude Vostok weather station in Antarctica. Brrrr 🥶

#factoftheday #didyouknow

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 12

It was sent on 3rd December by Neil Papworth, a 22-year-old British software programmer commissioned by Vodafone to develop a Short Message Service (SMS). Nokia introduced a phone with SMS functionality the following year.

#factoftheday #didyouknow

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 11

Taste buds detect five basic tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami – a savoury flavour often associated with monosodium glutamate 👅

#factoftheday #sciencefact

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 10

What makes a healthy diet? It often seems to depend on who you ask.

🥚 Eggs = protein powerhouse or cholesterol nightmare
☕ Coffee = brain boost or cognitive risk

The new iluli newsletter explores whether personalised nutrition might be the answer open.substack.com/pub/iluli/p/...

Will personalised nutrition finally free us from fad diets and bad advice?

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iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 10

This is causing Earth's rotation to very gradually slow down. As a result, our days are getting roughly 1.09 milliseconds longer each century. 🌎🌕

#factoftheday #didyouknow

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 4

Astronauts tend to return from space missions 3% taller than when they left. This is because of the effect of microgravity on their spines.

#factoftheday #didyouknow #space

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 3

More growth, more problems? 🤔

Degrowth challenges everything we know about the economy, arguing that progress means scaling back, not expanding. Could this save the planet? 🌍

Find out in the latest iluli video: t.co/3JICUoZdpA

#Degrowth #SustainableLiving

iluli by Mike Lamb @iluliexplains.bsky.social · Mar 3

The International Space Station orbits Earth at about 17.5k mph, completing a full circuit roughly every 90 minutes.

#factoftheday #space #NASA #ISS

Astronauts on the International Space Station see 16 sunrises and sunsets every day!