Top 10 Best Tom Scott Videos

WatchMojo

This legendary YouTuber may be stepping away, but his epic videos will live forever! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down the best and most mind-blowing videos from British YouTuber Tom Scott, as he takes a well-earned break.

Transcript

00:00 This is not going to be a normal video.

00:02 We're sending garlic bread to the edge of space!

00:06 Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down the best and most mind-blowing videos

00:10 from British YouTuber Tom Scott as he takes a well-earned break.

00:14 I've been throwing stuff at the internet since 1999.

00:17 Number 10.

00:18 I promise this story about microwaves is interesting.

00:21 Or you could put a magnetron inside a safe radiation-proof box called a Faraday cage,

00:25 you tune the wavelength so that water absorbs the radiation easily, and you've got a microwave

00:29 and you can cook lunch.

00:31 In this video, Tom begins by talking about a research tangent he went on in which he

00:36 found the bizarre kernel of information that microwaves were invented to be a "humane

00:41 way to reheat hamsters."

00:43 It feels like a story that shouldn't be buried as a vague anecdote in a newspaper

00:46 from years ago.

00:47 As he goes on to explain, this turns out to be absolutely true, and he interviews one

00:52 of the men responsible, James Lovelock.

00:55 An early version of a microwave was invented by British scientists in the 1950s during

00:59 cryobiological experiments.

01:08 They were freezing small rodents and then trying to reanimate them through heat.

01:12 As the video explains, this only worked on small animals because you can freeze and heat

01:17 them very quickly and can't be repeated in humans.

01:22 Number 9.

01:23 Language sounds that could exist but don't.

01:26 Fans of Tom Scott will know that he has a degree in linguistics, which makes his videos

01:31 about language particularly interesting.

01:41 He gives us a crash course in the history of the English language, and then moves on

01:45 to the International Phonetic Alphabet.

01:53 If you've ever wanted to understand the phonetic alphabet, this is an excellent explanation.

01:57 But he goes the extra mile by speculating about sounds that are possible for humans

02:01 to make but which don't appear in known languages, and sounds that may exist but which

02:06 no human has ever been able to vocalize.

02:17 Number 8.

02:18 YouTube's copyright system isn't broken, the world's is.

02:21 It's always interesting to hear professional YouTubers talk about YouTube and the way it

02:25 works behind the scenes.

02:32 Something that remains enigmatic is YouTube's copyright system, which we're very familiar

02:36 with at WatchMojo.

02:42 In this 40-minute masterpiece, Tom explains the intricacies of copyright law, both in

02:47 his native UK and over in the US, where Google is based.

02:51 He goes into detail about what gets flagged as being copyright infringement online and

02:55 what doesn't, despite many of those things being fair use and many of the things that

03:00 don't get flagged potentially being illegal.

03:09 Watch him get to the bottom of what is and isn't transformative under the law and explain

03:13 how this should change.

03:18 Number 7.

03:19 Why you can't buy Dasani water in Britain

03:29 While Dasani water is very widely sold in North America, it's not available to Brits

03:34 like Tom Scott.

03:35 But why is that?

03:36 Well, as Tom explains, Coca-Cola was part of a PR scandal when it tried to introduce

03:41 Dasani to the UK in 2004.

03:48 The problem was that Dasani was bottling tap water, which is acceptable in America but

03:53 seen as absurd in the UK.

03:55 So when the public found out, they were not happy.

03:59 Worse, the water was later found to be contaminated with bromate.

04:11 All this happened in the space of a month and Dasani has never been sold in the UK since.

04:16 Even weirder, this mirrored the plot of a 1992 episode of the popular British sitcom

04:21 Only Fools and Horses.

04:29 Number 6.

04:30 The US-Canada border splits this road down the middle

04:39 He doesn't only make videos about the UK and has traveled to America time and time

04:43 again.

04:44 In this quick video, Tom journeys to the border between Canada and the US, where the towns

04:49 of Derby Line and Stansted are divided by the international border.

05:02 It's actually illegal to cross the street here without going through a customs checkpoint

05:06 and showing your passport.

05:07 Tom interviews the locals and explores how they're inconvenienced by the border, and

05:11 how strange laws about borders are enforced.

05:20 If you cross the street for whatever reason, there's a good chance the cops will show

05:24 up because you've illegally entered another country.

05:27 Number 5.

05:28 Why the US Army electrifies this water

05:37 Moving down from Canada and into the United States, Tom's now in Peoria, Illinois to

05:42 teach us about how the US has tackled the problem of invasive carp in its rivers.

05:46 These river systems have now been taken over by huge carp, which leap out of the water

05:50 with such force that they can actually hurt humans if they hit them.

06:02 But the real problem is that America is trying to protect the Great Lakes from these carp.

06:07 Tom, with the help of an Army engineer, explains how the US wants to achieve that.

06:23 This dangerous electric fence has enough voltage to potentially kill a person, and all to protect

06:29 the Great Lakes and their fishing industries from these environmentally harmful carp.

06:34 Number 4.

06:35 20 years ago, I predicted 2022.

06:38 Did I get it right?

06:39 Back in April 2012, Tom made a video predicting the future, going through everything he thought

06:51 would happen or would have happened already by 2022.

06:55 And then he made a follow-up talking about how the video had aged.

06:58 A lot of his predictions were on point, including about the widespread adoption of 5G in smartphones.

07:05 That's another big miss, although to be fair to earlier me, I still think wireless headphones

07:11 are a terrible idea.

07:12 But many were wrong, too.

07:14 And it's fascinating to see him talk about why and how they were wrong, and what led

07:18 him to believe those things could happen a decade ago.

07:25 And he finishes it by saying what he thinks will happen by 2032, including the potential

07:30 demise of YouTube.

07:31 We'll have to see if in 10 years' time, Google decide to shut down this old product

07:37 as well.

07:39 Number 3.

07:40 YouTubers have to declare ads.

07:41 Why doesn't anyone else?

07:52 Another video that gets into the weeds of how YouTube works.

07:55 This time, Tom is looking at product placement.

07:58 On YouTube, all creators are required to declare clearly and upfront if they've been given

08:02 a sponsorship.

08:12 But in both Britain and America, this isn't really true for traditional media.

08:16 As Tom points out, in the US, disclosures about product placement are often hidden in

08:21 the end credits of movies and shows, meaning that people aren't aware they're being advertised

08:25 to unless they go looking for the information.

08:34 This video digs into the history of advertising and product placement, and Tom concludes by

08:38 saying he thinks all media should be required to do what influencers do.

08:43 Number 2.

08:44 We sent garlic bread to the edge of space, then ate it.

08:47 Using a high-altitude balloon, Tom and a team of enthusiasts decided to launch a garlic

08:52 bread baguette to the edge of space - as high as balloons like that are physically able

08:57 to go.

09:04 When the balloon reaches its limit and pops, the garlic bread will crash back down to Earth.

09:09 To keep the bread relatively safe to eat, a mechanism to close the box it's in was designed.

09:19 This all works, and they're able to track the box, find where it landed, and then actually

09:24 eat it without worrying about contamination.

09:26 Tom later uploaded the full uncut livestream of the bread's journey to space, racking up

09:31 millions more views.

09:36 Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified

09:40 about our latest videos.

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09:52 Number 1.

09:53 This video has X views.

09:55 The title of this video constantly changes, and so far, it's always been close to the

10:00 real number.

10:08 So how did Tom pull off this magic trick?

10:11 With a deceptively clever piece of code, this video is set to automatically update its title.

10:25 He did this to talk about the changing nature of the internet, and how different it is today

10:29 for software engineers and web developers.

10:40 It's an homage to the old days of Web 2.0, when anyone could learn how to code and build

10:44 simple but functional websites, before everything online had to be monetized and made to turn

10:50 a profit.

10:51 Let us know in the comments what your favorite video from Tom Scott's huge back catalog is.

11:09 Did you enjoy this video?

11:14 Check out these other clips from WatchMojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell

11:18 to be notified about our latest videos.

11:20 See you next time!

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