Everything Is Amazing

Hello! This is Everything Is Amazing, a newsletter about science, curiosity and wonder. Since starting this project in early 2021, I’ve inexpertly blundered my way into learning about a ton of things and publishing the results for all to see and maybe laugh at. But then, because of the nature of emailed-out newsletters, they more or less disappeared from view, banished into Archives that, let’s face it, nobody has the time to read.

Hi! This is Everything Is Amazing, a newsletter about science and wonder. Since yesterday I announced I’m starting re-sharing the challenges I was running in the earliest days of this newsletter, I thought it’d be fun to send you this as well - one of my earliest attempts to record a voiceover of one of these newsletters. It’s about learning to be kind about the vivid, complex lives of other people - and about the worst teacher on this subject that I ever had.

Hello! This is Everything Is Amazing, a science newsletter written by a guy who tried to see a once-in-a-lifetime eclipse, but unfortunately picked the wrong sky to do it under: Physicist Alastair Williams had a much better view from near Zaragoza in Spain… …while this shot by photographer Albert Dros in Menorca is absolute madness. And honestly, how astonishing it is that we get to see this.

Hello! This is Everything Is Amazing, a newsletter about science, wonder and weird lights in the sky that aren’t actually there (sorry). In only slightly horrifying news, it seems John Carpenter was indeed onto something here: I probably should have realised it myself, when I recently wrote this piece about living microbes surviving in our stratosphere: Season 7 Is There Life In The Clouds?

Hello again! This is Everything is Amazing, a newsletter about science, curiosity and wonder.

One of the dangers of writing a newsletter about the wonders of science is sometimes you stumble over an idea you just can’t get out your head. The one currently haunting me (thanks to writing this piece about the 4,900 year old Prometheus) is: why can’t we just plant a few billion more trees?

Hello! This is Everything Is Amazing, a newsletter about science and ideas and the importance of remembering when we saved the world. This week, I’ve been captivated by this photo of a can of coconut milk: As you can see, it’s a really lousy piece of Photoshop work. Except - wait, what? These are, as far as I can tell, unaltered photos of a very real, very confusing phenomenon that happens twice a year.

Hello! This is Everything Is Amazing, a newsletter that allows me to ask unlikely questions like “what if we flip our maps around when we cross the equator?” and “what if architecture was invisible?

Hello! This is Everything Is Amazing - and based on today’s edition, who knows what it is? Nevertheless, if you’re not a subscriber, please sign up below (if only out of morbid curiosity): This one is best listened to - I must have aged myself ten years recording it for you. Nevertheless, there’s a transcript below. The other day, when it was 28 degrees Celsius outside here in western Scotland, I had an absolutely brilliant idea.

Hi. This is Mike of Everything Is Amazing, a newsletter that argues where we’re going, we need more of the right kind of idiots. If you haven’t yet done so, please sign up for maximum idiocy below: A few days ago I saw this image from the magnificent weird medieval guys (posted here): What a perfect name that would make for a regular round-up of interesting and hopeful things, I thought greedily. So, as the title of this newsletter confirms, I’m stealing it.