iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

It sometimes seems that the history of innovation is really the history of lucky accidents - and here's another case in point open.substack.com/pub/originso... #inventions 🧪

open.substack.com

Smoke signals

How one scientist’s dirty habit gave us a staple of home safety

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Buble Wrap: we all know it, we've all used it, we've all popped it. But did you know that the product as we know it was not what the inventors intended when they created it in the 1950s? Read on to discover Bubble Wrap's curious history originsofeverything.substack.com/p/cushioning... #inventions

originsofeverything.substack.com

Cushioning the blow

How a failed wallpaper design became the world’s most famous packaging material

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Did you enjoying thumbing through The Guinness Book of Records books when you were younger (or perhaps still do!)? Ever wondered who came up with the concept for the book, and why? 👇

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Oh look, a bunch of joyless, souless, loveless idiots can't throw a decent party, quelle surprise

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

In case your creeping feelings of existential dread were beginning to wane, here's your booster shot

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Old British bodies can't cope with the heat. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with the same one I had last year...(I'm not *old* but I do turn 50 next week and that sounds, well, bloody old to my eternally youthful mind)

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Want to look into space? Want to *really* look into space? Then trip on this (you may need to download a 9Gb - yes, 9Gb - image. Worth it...)🔭🧪

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

If you're ever feeling like you're a pathetic loser, you can always favourably compare yourself to this ridiculous man-child in red (both of them, actually)

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

"It would basically kill the AI industry overnight" Oh boo fucking hoo. Always thought this guy was a prick (Clegg, not Ball)

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Super interesting new research exploring the fuzzy zone between non-life/life, and perhaps where the latter came from 🧪🧬

originsofeverything.substack.com

Genesis Story: Part I

The deep origins of life on earth

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

I've read this supposed history of everyone who ever lived by @adamrutherford.bsky.social , and I don't get a single fucking mention, absolute scammer! But seriously, the talk sounds well worth going to....

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

LEGO. We’ve all played with it. We’ve all built with it. We’ve all trodden on it in the dark. And we all know it’s a Danish concept through and through – right? Well, not quite: it was actually inspired by a British toy maker who never saw his own inventions succeed like LEGO blocks.

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Have you ever wondered about how the universe came into being, but felt intimidated by the physics/didn't want to read a whole book about it? Here's the shirtest, gentlest version of this amazing, mind-boggling origin story that I could manage 🧪🧬 originsofeverything.substack.com/p/the-bigges...

originsofeverything.substack.com

The Biggest Origin Story of All

How our universe came to be

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

This event was so pathetically embarassing and I love that fact

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Traffic lights before cars? That's right - find out more about the curious history of this essential feature of the modern world originsofeverything.substack.com/p/stopgo

originsofeverything.substack.com

Stop/go

The Victorian origins of the traffic light

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Long before germ theory, quaratines were a staple of public health policy. Here's where they came from.... open.substack.com/pub/originso...

open.substack.com

The Forty-Day Law

From the Black Sea to the Black Death: the gruesome origins of the quarantine

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Cool thread on a story I most likely would not have looked into in much detail, but am glad to know the revelant details 🧪🧬

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Always down to watch a Ken Burns doc

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

@michael-marshall.bsky.social wrote an excellent book on the origins of life a few years back (The Genesis Quest: amzn.eu/d/09s…) so no better guide - I'm looking forard to hearing about the latest thinking in this tricky area...🧪🧬 #scicomm #originoflife

amzn.eu

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Chances are you’ve owned a Slinky. I have, and over the past 80 years so too have some 300 million people. Here’s it's origin story in brief [🧵👇] #toys #inventions

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 18/06/2026

Always torn about separating the art from the artist - generally I'm quite tolerant but there are definitely limits (eg, I won't listen to the one song by the Lost Prophets that I liked, because of Ian Watkins). Interested to take a moment out and think more deeply about my position here.

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

I would not have thought Rob Kenyon had a novel in him. I suspect that is where it should've remained. But I can't pretend I'm not intrigued to see at least excerpts...

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Brilliant and detailed dive into the connections and networks of reciprocal favours that bound the Epstein class of scientist-thinkers.

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Really good piece. In the late 90s/early-to-mid 00s I was reading a lot of the big names of the Edge community, and the New Atheism. Started to get turned off a lot of these thinkers for Epstein-unrelated reasons, but my parting of ways has only become more sensible as the years go by.

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Painful to recall my optimism of 2008, and my naivety of the coming whitelash...

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

"Man, why do people stop talking about problems once they've solved them? Pretty sus, no?" 🤔🧪

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Everyone knows the feeling of a cold stethoscope pressed against warm skin. But when and why was this icon of medicine created? [A thread 👇...🧪🧬 #histtech #histsci #inventions #scicomm ]

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Looks good, and a subject I could do with getting up to date on.

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

When Babbage graduated in 1813, he was obsessed with the foundations of maths, and developed a presciently abstract vision of the subject that a century later re-emerged as modern formalism. Then he ditched all that abstraction, and went completely concrete and practical with this. Astonishing! 🧪🧮

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

The 8-million year journey of human evolution in 10 quick steps: a Q&A [a 🧵👇]

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Reposted by Dan Jones

Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 13/06/2026

“More than 700 women have been murdered in the UK since 2020, but we didn’t see those claiming that their actions are about ‘protecting women and girls’ riot over those, because the majority of perpetrators were white.” www.liberalcurrents.com/the-violence...

liberalcurrents.com

The Violence on the Streets of the UK is About Political Rhetoric, Not Migration

These riots are about race politics, not concerns rooted in reality.

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Reposted by Dan Jones

The Economist @economist.com · 14/06/2026

When Alexis de Tocqueville arrived in New York in 1831, it was a small, low-slung city with pigs on the streets. But he was able to see past that to a vision of the future. How is that vision faring today? Find out on episode one of “Tocqueville Road Trip”

econ.st

1. Game of chance

In 1831, America looked like the future of democracy. Is that still true today?

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Reposted by Dan Jones

Dr Lindsey Fitzharris @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

Apparently, the future is... Futurama. "If you ever dreamed of having your brain hooked up to a collection of tubes, pumps, and laboratory gadgets within hours of your death, you’re in luck." www.vice.com/en/article/w...

vice.com

Why This Biotech Company Is Keeping Bodiless Human Brains Alive in a Lab

If you ever dreamed of having your brain hooked up to a collection of tubes, pumps, and laboratory gadgets within hours of your death, you're in luck.

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

In light of my forthcoming thread on human origins, here's a wide-ranging chat between @newscientist.com's Michael Marshall and @profaliceroberts.bsky.social about the deep origins of humankind and many other curious features of our biology www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdzy...

youtube.com

The Evolutionary Accidents That Made Us Human

YouTube video by New Scientist

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Dan Jones @danjoneswords.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

Hello humans of Bluesky! Stick around for an eclectic mix of origin stories about everything and anything, inspired by my Substack (see links in bio). Expect the unexpected, and share your own favourite origin stories! First up tomorrow, a 10-part thread on a big one: the origins of humanity…

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