Olivier Usher

We’re pleased to announce the winner of the Aqualunar Challenge! 🥁 The SonoChem System by Naicker Scientific has been awarded the top prize for its innovative approach, generating millions of tiny bubbles in melted lunar ice to produce drinkable water for astronauts. 🌒🚰

Very proud of all the teams in the Aqualunar Challenge, but particularly proud of Lolan Naicker, our worthy winner theguardian.com/science/2025/m…

Thrilled to be at Canada House for the winners’ event of the Aqualunar Challenge @spacegovuk @Challenge_Works

@thomasforth How about 4) all the more reason to spend on HS2 or 5) the money spent on HS2 should have been spent on upgrading Heathrow?

Oooh, just seen a bonus, 3/ proof that the role of the Mayor of London needs to be abolished.

Is the Heathrow kerfuffle proof that key national infrastructure, 1/ shouldn't be privatised since the private sector will always put profit above resilience. 2/ should be privatised since the useless UK central government can't be trusted to do anything. Can't wait to find out.

Mark Zuckerberg pirated my book. I don’t mind, but I still want my pound of flesh ojusher.medium.com/mark-zuckerber…

Looking forward to hosting the @spacegovuk Unlocking Space for Investment pitch session at Space-Comm Expo this morning with @Exotopic_Ltd space-comm.co.uk/session/unlock…

@hugorifkind Saying he’s English

I wonder what Farage wants to say that he fears might get him put in prison?

@rcolvile @ChrisGiles_ I imagine it would have depreciated substantially through 40 years of wear and tear and is probably very cheap now.

Nerdy housing/econ question. I need to work out what a house costing £33k in 1985 would be worth today. Nationwide says £141k, using RPI. Bank of England says £100k, using CPI. Which should I use? (cc @ChrisGiles_)

We used to talk about abundance. Now we talk about optimisation. It's a huge economic shift, and a big cultural one too. There are good reasons for it, but it doesn't feel great, and I think it's worth talking about why. ojusher.medium.com/why-did-we-giv…

@thomasforth Bay leaves are not bullshit. You are thinking of parsley. Parsley is bullshit.

Simply impossible not to read this piece again while cooking. theawl.com/2016/03/the-va…

We are thrilled to see the incredible progress being made by UK teams in the Aqualunar Challenge, supported by our International Bilateral Fund, as they develop groundbreaking technologies to extract and purify lunar water—essential for enabling future missions. 🌑💧

The race to establish a permanent moon base is on, but one of the key factors which will determine its success & viability is being able to find a renewable source of clean water. As part of @nesta_uk's Future Signals series, @ojusher explores this topic: nesta.org.uk/feature/future…

@FredericHCarver What’s your projected date for Zimbabwe?

I felt bad being mean, but it really was bad medium.com/freds-blog/bah…

@Ocado I’m not called Daniel, but yes I already contacted your customer service. They apologised but did nothing to resolve it, which I’d suggest is another service design failure.

@ojusher Hi Daniel, we're so sorry to hear your order has been cancelled due to the card being declined. If you'd like to DM us, we'll certainly take a look into this for you.

It's interesting to see service design failures in companies that are usually pretty good at it. @Ocado will cancel an entire order and release your delivery slot the instant a card is declined - no chance to confirm the transaction, enter an alternative card or try again.

@Ocado They have an excellent online shopping experience and they are truly world-leading in automation and robotics... but that doesn't count for anything if they nuke a customer order at a touchpoint that their rivals wouldn't.

@Ocado And @ocado doesn't check your card at the time you order either - it does it in the middle of the night before delivery. So the first you know is when you get woken up by your bank's fraud alert SMS, and an email alert that you're not going to be getting your shopping tomorrow.

I've thought about this more over the holiday, and I haven't changed my mind. I think there's a good chance that #LLMs and #DiffusionModels aren't exponential technologies. (Other AI technologies I am much less sure) But I'd love to know what others think ojusher.medium.com/what-if-ai-isn…

What’s on the horizon for 2025? 🔮 It’s time for Nesta’s Future Signals collection, our annual look at the tech and trends that could shape the year ahead. Based on data points, observations & sector insights, these are the trends that could have important implications for 2025 ➡️ bit.ly/4gBAlbT