I promise this story about microwaves is interesting.

I found an article that said “The microwave was invented to heat hamsters humanely in 1950s experiments.“ And I thought, no it wasn’t. ...was it? Pull down the description for thorough references and credits. Thanks to James Lovelock for his time! His latest book is Novacene: [that is, of course, an Amazon affiliate link] Filmed safely: - thanks to jabs, PCR tests, isolation and distancing. I did consider whether to do an extended interview with Dr Lovelock, but the Science Museum has already done far better than I ever could: On cyborgs, asteroids and Gaia theory: On his greatest epiphany: An extended 90-minute interview from the Lovelock Centenary Conference: REFERENCES: HISTORY OF THE MICROWAVE: I Burrell, in the Independent, 1997: “Your money, or the cat gets microwaved“: M Blitz, “The Amazing True Story of How the Microwave Was Invented by Accident“: E Schliephake, “Ultra-short waves in medicine“ in Short Wave Craft, Vol. 3, No. 11, March 1933, p. 646 [PDF]: E Ackerman, “A Brief History of the Microwave Oven“, IEEE Spectrum: Radarange photo from Acroterion: : - image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, James Lovelock in 1962: Photo by Donald Uhrbrock/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty Images PAPERS FROM NIMR: A Smith, J Lovelock, A Parkes, 1954: Resuscitation of Hamsters after Supercooling or Partial Crystallization at Body Temperatures Below 0° C.. Nature 173, 1136–1137. R K Andjus, J E Lovelock, 1955: Reanimation of rats from body temperatures between 0 and 1° C by microwave diathermy. The Journal of Physiology, 128. Lovelock, J E, Smith A U, 1959, Heat transfer from and to animals in experimental hypothermia and freezing. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 80: 487-499. I’m at on Twitter at on Facebook at and on Instagram as tomscottgo