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This Is Your Brain On Stale Air

Tom Scott · 4.2M views · 2019-01-21 · 5:51

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Overview

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.

On Hacker News

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

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2019–2025

Topics

Neuroscience & the brainEveryday physics & science demosPower grid, heating & buildings
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carbon dioxideair qualitycognitive functiontom scottventilation

What people said

wh-uws · 2020-05 · Recommendation

This one of those things that sounds silly but is actually very easy to test and see it can be a real issue. Tom Scott did a great video on it a while back [VIDEO] Do yourself a favor and get an air quality monitor like an awair [LINK] and monitor the levels. Making sure they are good in whatever indoor areas you spend a good amount of time in is a night and day difference cognitively.

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yoodenvranx · 2019-01 · Recommendation

For those who are wondering about 'changed my life': Tom Scott uploaded a video about CO2 and its influences a few days ago. it's a good palce to start research: [VIDEO]

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jackcurran · 2025-08 · Reference

Here is our Kickstarter Project Link. We'd love your support! My best friend and I have spent the past year trying to track the environment in our NYC apartments, cafés, and subway cars. We tried the usual handheld monitors and bulky bricks, but none were truly pocket‑friendly, user friendly, and most importantly, they only tracked a single metric, and poorly at that. So we built our own. Made it a powerhouse of multiple sensors. And miniatured it to fit in your pocket when you want to put it away. Our device (named Halo Air after our favorite game, Halo 3) snaps to the back of any smartphone and streams CO₂, PM1/2.5/10, t‑VOCs, temp, and humidity into our app, a lockscreen widget, and we'll be making the data feed available too. No disposable batteries, no calibration stickers—just one USB‑C charge and go. We just hit Kickstarter yesterday. If you’re curious, we’d love your feedback (good, bad, brutal) and—if it resonates—your support as early backers. The link’s in the first comment to avoid spamming the post. Huge thanks to Reddit for the inspiration threads on sensor accuracy, cross‑calibration, and DIY enclosures; your collective brainpower shaped Halo Air more than you know. If you're interested in the area, here are some cool links that I've heard people say completely changed their thinking about air quality: This Is Your Brain On Stale Air (Youtube) [VIDEO] Elon's X thread about his CO2 Monitor: [LINK] Diary of a CEO: The Air In Your Room Is Making You Stupid & Harmi

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Sources

Video by Tom Scott, played through YouTube.

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