The Infinite Monkey Cage
Technofossils - Sarah Gabbott, Mark Miodownik and Aurie Styla
August 6, 202542 min · 8,799 words
Show notes
Brian Cox and Robin Ince dig deep into the strata of an imagined human history to unearth the curious concept of technofossils. Joined by paleobiologist Sarah Gabbott, material scientist Mark Miodownik and comedian and tech enthusiast Aurie Styla the panel unearth how the everyday objects that we throw away today compare to fossils of the past.
Highlighted moments
they'll find there's more than 50% of the periodic table are in them. And they'll come to the conclusion that, OK, this is a race of people who worshipped the periodic table, worshipped the god of chemistry, and carried around these lozenges, which they called smartphones, full of materials.
“this algae is making a biopolymer, which is almost chemically indistinguishable from polyethylene, and that is surviving completely unscathed in sediments for 48 million years.”
“I think it's rather charming to think that some of the best fossils of communication are going to be a kid's picture of their house and their mum and their dad and their dog.”
“they still tied their shoes with strings. Like, how do we understand this? They had invented Velcro.”
Transcript
Transcript not available for this episode yet.
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