Top 10 Best Tom Scott Videos

In this video, Tom begins by talking about a research tangent he went on in which he found the bizarre kernel of information that microwaves were invented to be a “humane way to reheat hamsters”. As he goes on to explain, this turns out to be absolutely true – and he interviews one of the men responsible, James Lovelock. An early version of a microwave was invented by British scientists in the 1950s during cryobiological experiments. They were freezing small rodents and then trying to reanimate them through heat. As the video explains, this only worked on small animals because you can freeze and heat them very quickly, and can’t be repeated in humans.

Fans of Tom Scott will know that he has a degree in linguistics, which makes his videos about language particularly interesting. He gives us a crash course in the history of the English language, and then moves on to the International Phonetic Alphabet. If you’ve ever wanted to understand the phonetic alphabet, this is an excellent explanation, but he goes the extra mile by speculating about sounds that are possible for humans to make – but which don’t appear in known languages – and sounds that may exist, but which no human has ever been able to vocalize.

It’s always interesting to hear professional YouTubers talk about YouTube and the way it works behind-the-scenes. Something that remains enigmatic is YouTube’s copyright system – which we’re very familiar with at WatchMojo! In this forty-minute masterpiece, Tom explains the intricacies of copyright law – both in his native UK, and over in the US, where Google is based. He goes into detail about what gets flagged as being copyright infringement online and what doesn’t, despite many of those things being fair use, and many of the things that DON’T get flagged potentially being illegal. Watch him get to the bottom of what is and isn’t transformative under the law and explain how this should change.

While Dasani water is very widely sold in North America, it’s not available to Brits like Tom Scott. But, why is that? Well, as Tom explains, Coca-Cola was part of a PR scandal when it tried to introduce Dasani to the UK in 2004. The problem was that Dasani was bottling tap water, which is acceptable in America, but seen as absurd in the UK – so, when the public found out, they weren’t happy. Worse, the water was later found to be contaminated with bromate. All this happened in the space of a month, and Dasani has never been sold in the UK since. Even weirder, this mirrored the plot of a 1992 episode of the popular British sitcom “Only Fools and Horses”.

He doesn’t only make videos about the UK and has travelled to America time and time again. In this quick video, Tom journeys to the border between Canada and the US, where the towns of Derby Line and Stanstead are divided by the international border. It’s actually illegal to cross the street here without going through a customs checkpoint and showing your passport. Tom interviews the locals and explores how they’re inconvenienced by the border, and how strange laws about borders are enforced. If you cross the street for whatever reason, there’s a good chance the cops will show up because you’ve illegally entered another country.

Moving down from Canada and into the United States, Tom’s now in Peoria, Illinois, to teach us about how the US has tackled the problem of invasive carp in its rivers. These river systems have now been taken over by huge carp, which leap out of the water with such force that they can actually hurt humans if they hit them. But, the real problem is that America is trying to protect the Great Lakes from these carp, and Tom – with the help of an army engineer – explains how the US wants to achieve that. This dangerous electric fence has enough voltage to potentially kill a person, and all to protect the Great Lakes and their fishing industries from these environmentally harmful carp.

Back in April 2012, Tom made a video predicting the future, going through everything he thought would happen, or would have happened already, by 2022. And then he made a follow-up talking about how the video had aged. A lot of his predictions were on point, including about the widespread adoption of 5G and smartphones. But many were wrong, too, and it’s fascinating see him talk about why and how they were wrong, and what led him to believe those things could happen a decade ago. And then he finishes it by saying what he thinks will happen by 2032 – including the potential demise of YouTube.

Another video that gets into the weeds of how YouTube works, this time, Tom’s looking at product placement. On YouTube, all creators are required to declare clearly and upfront if they’ve been given a sponsorship. But in both Britain and America, this isn’t really true for traditional media. As Tom points out, in the US, disclosures about product placement are often hidden in the end credits of movies and shows, meaning that people aren’t aware they’re being advertised to unless they go looking for the information. This long video digs into the history of advertising and product placement, and Tom concludes by saying he thinks all media should be required to do what influencers do.

Using a high-altitude balloon, Tom and a team of enthusiasts decided to launch a garlic bread baguette to the edge of space – as high as balloons like that are physically able to go. When the balloon reaches its limit and pops, the garlic bread will crash back down to Earth. To keep the bread relatively safe to eat, a mechanism to close the box it’s in was designed. This all works, and they’re able to track the box, find where it landed, and then actually eat it without worrying about contamination. Tom later uploaded the full, uncut livestream of the bread’s journey to space, racking up millions more views.

The title of this video constantly chages, and so far, it’s always been close to the real number. So, how did Tom pull off this magic trick? With a deceptively clever piece of code, this video is set to automatically update its title. He did this to talk about the changing nature of the internet, and how different it is today for software engineers and web developers. It’s an homage to the old days of web 2.0, when anyone could learn how to code and build simple but functional websites, before everything online had to be monetized and made to turn a profit.

Let us know in the comments what your favourite video from Tom Scott’s huge back catalogue is!