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This Is Your Brain On Stale Air

Tom Scott · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Neuroscience & the brainEveryday physics & science demosPower grid, heating & buildings

What it is

Tom Scott features Kurtis Baute inside a sealed homemade biodome as carbon dioxide builds up, showing how stale air with elevated CO2 affects cognitive function. Sources include studies on CO2 and cognitive scores.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN links it as a popular, accessible introduction to indoor CO2 and its effect on thinking, in air quality threads.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 2 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2019, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “it's a good palce to start research”

    Good starting point for researching CO2 effects.

    yoodenvranx, 2019-01 · Recommendation · in “Show HN: I wanted to measure CO2 in my office, so I build a C++ WebServer/App”

  2. “Tom Scott did a great video on it a while back”

    Shows CO2 effects on cognition.

    wh-uws, 2020-05 · Recommendation · in “Rising CO2 levels may trigger cognitive impairment, says new study”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: carbon dioxide, air quality, cognitive function, tom scott, ventilation

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