It was just before Christmas in 2009 when Tom Kearney got hit by a bus.

He was walking back from his office in central London, excited to see his children, when a speeding bendy bus mirror smashed into the back of his head, causing a skull injury and pushing him in front of the bus. His head was cracked open and his lungs were burst. 

The incident happened as Tom was waiting for the ‘green man’ to cross the road on the south east corner junction of Harewood Place and Holles Street in Oxford Circus. But just moments later, Tom found himself thrown down the street choking to death on his own blood.

He was tended to by a 16-year-old boy, Hamza Benkhadda, who had just completed his first aid training, before being rushed to hospital where he slipped into a coma – and where he had a near death experience (NDE). 

Near death experiences are unequivocally fascinating. They are episodes of ‘disconnected consciousness’, which Dr Charlotte Martial, a neuroscientist with the Coma Science Group and the University of Liege, says relates to the fact that NDEs are a mental experience that has no connection to the physical environment.

She explains that people who tend to have NDEs are in life-threatening situations, like Tom, and that they can also come from other critical emergencies, like cardiac arrests.

Dr Martial explains the research she sees on NDEs have recurrent testimonies such as out of body experiences, seeing a bright light, meeting entities, or feeling a sense of harmony and unity. People often see visions of their loved ones, of being in tunnels, and seeing their life flash before their eyes. 

What’s the science behind an NDE? 

Dr Martial explains: ‘So we notably suggest that hypoxia would be the starting point of the cascade of specific neurochemical mechanisms.’ Hypoxia is where not enough oxygen reaches the cells. 

Dr Martial and her team were the first to establish a link between features of the experience with a specific neuro chemical mechanism. She explains in a paper: ‘We list the neurotransmitter change that may lead to specific features, such as the visual hallucination, or the fact that they feel an intense feeling of peacefulness, or the dissociation that happened at that time.’ So, which chemicals are released? 

‘We associate the serotonin energetic activity with visual hallucination.’ However, the team also found that the neurotransmitters dopamine, noradrenaline, GABA, glutamate and endorphins all play a part when someone is having an NDE – and that leads to the feelings of calm and peacefulness people often report experiencing.

However, there could also be a biological reason someone has an NDE. Dr Martial explains: ‘This may arise as a defense mechanism when people face a stressful or life-threatening or painful situation.’ 

So, what did Tom experience?

Tom told Metro that while he was in a coma he could hear the people around him, and even managed to recall the stories people told him. He said: ‘[My wife] proceeded to talk to me every day. She brought my friends in, my family visited everyone, and they all talked to me. 

‘This is extremely important because the coma is a bit like you’re in an underwater submarine and you’re trying to steer yourself by sound. I was able to construct a thought world that existed in my coma, which was not deeply unpleasant. I went to lots of places in time. Now I have fully consolidated those memories as dream memories.’ 

But the NDE he experienced was consolidated differently than his memories of being in a coma. He can recall the events of his NDE as if they actually happened. Tom recalls seeing relatives who had died many years, and even decades, before. He said: ‘So I’m in Ireland. I’m at the house of my great grandfather and I saw my grandfather and my grandmother, and I waved to them.

‘I was surprised because my grandfather died in 1944 and my grandmother died in 1966 but they were alive and happy, and I was happy too. It was really great to see them. I saw my great uncle, who died in 1989. I was really pleased to see him, and I saw my great-grandfather too’ 

Tom says his family asked him: ‘“What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here.” And I said, “I think I was hit by a bus.” And he [his great-grandfather] says, ”Well, that’s not for you.” And I said, “What do you mean? That’s not for you?”’

Tom said that his great-grandfather replied: ‘“Getting hit by a bus is not for you. My son was sunk in the North Atlantic, and was two weeks in a lifeboat in World War One, and he survived. And his brother, who later died in India, was sunk twice in one day and survived, so getting hit by a bus is not for you. You’re supposed to be back with your family. You’re back with your boys and back with your wife”.’

Tom realised that while his family were happy to see him, they recognised he had died and he shouldn’t ‘be there’. So, he was shown to a gate. 

After reaching the gate, Tom was transported somewhere else. He said: ‘So I go through the gate, and I end up in New York City. I’m in the kitchen of my in-laws.’

His mother-in-law was sitting at the table. He continues: ‘I was like “Oh, it’s so good to see you”, and she was like, “You’re not supposed to be here. You’re supposed to be with your wife and your boys, did something happen?” I said, “Yeah, I think I was hit by a bus” and she said, “No, no, no, no, you’re not supposed to be here. You’re supposed to leave. You’re not supposed to be here. Please go home”.’

When Tom left he found himself back in Ireland, this time with his cousin’s partner, who said the same thing. Tom recounts: ‘He had a towel out and books by him. And I went up to him, and he said, “Look, Tom you’re not supposed to be here”. And I said “But how are you?” And he said, “Look, I’m resting and I’m reading. Tell my partner I’m resting and reading, but you’re not supposed to be here”.’

Then Tom says he went towards a vine-covered door in the garden and woke up.

At this point, he had been in a coma for two weeks. As he had suffered from a brain haemorrhage and two collapsed lungs, he was given a tracheotomy which made talking impossible until the tube was removed in early January 2010.

Hallucinations vs NDEs

Hallucinations are not the same as an NDE. Dr Devin Terhune, a reader in Experimental Psychology from King’s College London, explains: ‘A hallucination is typically just defined as some type of perceptual state in the absence of a corresponding sensory stimulus or sensory input.’ 

Essentially, people can have hallucinations without being in a state that’s near death. It can be triggered with psychedelics or it can be a result of a brain disorder, and Dr Terhune explains that most people have had a hallucination in one way or another. 

He said: ‘The good way to think about it is that hallucinations can be just seen as one element of the broader complex near death experience. 

‘Most hallucinations are, particularly in non-clinical populations, not going to be anywhere near as complex and advanced as what you see in a near death experience.’

Positive vs negative 

Most research uncovers positive NDEs – but people can have negative ones too. These are often traumatic, and while many people come back from an NDE having a new sense of purpose, others can come back scarred.

Researchers don’t know why this happens. Dr Martial explains: ‘For me, the most intriguing are the negative experiences.

‘Testimonies often describe terrifying scenes, such as encountering monstrous beings or worlds of fire, yet these phenomena remain poorly understood and largely unexplored in the scientific literature.’

What happened to Tom next?

As for Tom, he’s walking and talking just fine now – after needing to teach himself how to eat and drink again as the injury damaged his vagus nerve.

He is campaigning to TfL and the Mayor of London for safer roads in a mission to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in London streets by public transport.

He spends his free time writing to parliament to address, what he says, is a system that kills and hospitalises people.

Lorna Murphy, TfL’s Director of Buses, told Metro: ‘Our thoughts remain with everyone affected by incidents on the bus network. It is completely unacceptable that anyone should be killed or seriously injured while travelling and we remain committed to our Vision Zero goal of eradicating death and serious injury from London’s roads and the bus network.

‘We are working alongside all bus operators, manufacturers and the boroughs to make the network safer through our comprehensive and world-leading bus safety programme. This is delivering major safety improvements across our fleet, our roads and the wider bus network and we remain committed to learning from every collision to end the trauma caused by serious incidents.’

Not sure how David Attenborough would explain this one: a trio of sharks have been filmed having a threesome for the first time.

The large leopard sharks were filmed getting freaky in the Pacific between New Zealand and Australia by a marine biologist.

After spotting them on the bottom, he waited on the surface until they decided the time had come to get to know one another better.

Describing the mesmerising moment, Dr Hugo Lassauce said: ‘I waited an hour, freezing in the water, but finally they started swimming up.

‘It was over quickly for both males, one after the other. The first took 63 seconds, the other 47.’

Despite being brief, the males were tired after the encounter, as they ‘lost all their energy and lay immobile on the bottom while the female swam away actively’.

The three sharks, seen in French territory New Caledonia, were all about 2.3 metres long, so they were no mere minnows.

Their species is listed as endangered, and there is little information on their natural mating behaviour in the wild.

For this reason, and for it being a unique behavioural observation, scientists were excited by the discovery (not for other reasons: get your mind from the gutter).

They say it may help them learn how to better inseminate sharks artificially and ‘rewild’ the species in countries including Australia.

Researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia said in an article in the Journal of Ethology that leopard sharks in captivity have been observed pentetrating females for up to five minutes, so this was significantly speedier.

They added that the ‘lack of interest from the male toward the female after copulation coupled with the female swimming to separate areas is common in many shark species’.

Senior Research Fellow Dr Christine Dudgeon, a co-author of the paper with Dr Lassauce, said: ‘It’s surprising and fascinating that two males were involved sequentially on this occasion.

‘From a genetic diversity perspective, we want to find out how many fathers contribute to the batches of eggs laid each year by females.’

For more of a deep dive into the fascinating world of biology, you might want to read how gay sex between animals ‘evolved for an important reason’, that most male macque monkeys are bisexual, or perhaps about about the tarantulas recently found with ‘massive penises’ in the Horn of Africa.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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Self-driving taxis are nothing new in California, where they have been picking up customers since last summer.

But are they about to head out of Silicon Valley and into the traffic chaos of Hyde Park Corner and the M25?

A spate of job adverts has appeared on the Careers section of robotaxi firm Waymo, recruiting for seven roles based in London.

They are for a Fleet Readiness Lead and Incident Response Manager, as well as for software engineers focused on machine learning.

One fulltime role, advertised with a base salary of up to £95,000, will be tasked with ‘ensuring the Waymo fleet is ready for service’ as well as keeping cars prepared for Ride-Hail services.

While the new employee will have to travel to the US for a month for training, the main role will be based in London, raising the question… exactly which fleet will they be maintaining?

Waymo began as as the Google self-driving car project, and is still majority owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet. In 2019, it bought British AI company Latent Logic, which uses artifically intelligence to predict realistic human behaviour in simulations.

It’s no secret that the UK is an attractive future market for self-driving taxis.

Waymo’s first European engineering team is based here, with more investment intended to come.

Uber has said it’s ready to put robotaxis on the road as soon as the government agrees, and they already have driverless taxis in the US, China, the UAE and Singapore.

Tesla has also tested its self-driving software on London streets with the aim of launching its Cybercab here.

In July, ministers said they would fast-track pilots schemes for the UK’s first self-driving taxis and ‘bus-like services’, so they could start from spring 2026.

The government said it hoped the new technology could provide more accessible travel options and boost transport in rural areas, while ‘creating 38,000 jobs and unlocking a £42 billion industry’, and a consultation about it is running until September 28.

Driverless taxis will get the full green light in the UK from 2027, when the Automated Vehicles Act is implemented.

This week’s recruitment drive from Waymo indicates the company is preparing to hit the road driving as soon as the regulation is there.

We will have to get used to seeing robots in our daily lives: you might even spot them delivering your post in future.

Last month, we followed a robotic dog doing a round of deliveries in a trial for Evri in Leeds, somewhere residents are already used to mini robots on wheels bringing them their groceries from Co-op.

Waymo is currently available in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin, and says it has completed over ten million rides with a 93% satisfaction rate. It has not yet expanded outside the US however, so London could be one of its first overseas markets, alongside Tokyo, where it has also started test operations.

In a blog post last month, Waymo said: ‘We’re constantly asked ‘when will Waymo come to my city?’ The answer— we’re on our way to serving major cities across the U.S. and other global cities as we work to bring the Waymo Driver to more people.’

They claimed the driverless tech was making roads safer, with 91% fewer ‘serious injury or worse crashes’ compared to an average human driver over the same distance.

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It’s thirty years since one of the most famous films ever made about space travel came out in cinemas.

Apollo 13 was nominated for nine Oscars, and brought the true story of how three astronauts nearly died while whipping around the Moon to a new audience.

Ron Howard’s epic lost out on Best Picture to another Tom Hanks film, Forrest Gump, but has been recognised as a landmark in space cinema, laying the groundwork for works like Gravity and The Martian.

Those too young to remember it may still have seen another of its stars Kevin Bacon reprise his role as an astronaut, this time for an advert for EE in 2022.

But what actually happened during the Apollo 13 mission on April 11, 1970, and why is it seen as such a success story, despite the fact it never landed on the lunar surface as planned?

‘Failure is not an option’

Although these words were never actually spoken in the real mission, they became synonymous with the launch after NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz says during the film: ‘We’ve never lost an American in space; we’re sure as hell not going to lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.’

Losing an astronaut was a real possibility, after an oxygen tank exploded while the space craft was over two days into its journey to the Moon, around 200,000 miles from Earth.

Commander Jim Lovell, Command Module Pilot Jack Swigert, and Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise were in danger of becoming lost in space, with dwindling oxygen and a malfunctioning ride home.

Remaining calm in the most stressful of circumstances (the near certainty of freezing or suffocating to death does make problems on the commute look tame), they crammed into the lunar module and used it like a ‘life boat’, improvising a filter for carbon dioxide.

A Nasa account of the descent tells how after the oxygen tank exploded like a ‘bomb’, they had to ration out water to only around 170ml per day, as it would still take them four days to get back in the small capsule. All three of the of the crew lost a lot of weight, surviving on fruit juice and hot dogs.

The spacecraft had been on course to land on the Moon, so they had to work out how to change direction and go back to Earth instead.

Ground crews computed how long they would need to fire the descent engine to set them on a free return couse to Earth, and five hours after the explosion they fired a 35–second burn to allow them to swing around the Moon instead. After rounding the far side of the Moon and coming back towards it, they fired a longer five-minute burn to send them back on course to Earth, and a safe splashdown near Samoa in the Pacific Ocean.

This incredible feat was memorably described in the film by Jim Lovell’s mother Blanche, who said the line ‘If they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it.’

The film also immortalised the line ‘Houston, we have a problem’, even if this was subtly different from the real words spoken, ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem’.

While the film about Nasa’s attempt to land humans on the Moon for the third time is a classic, the real story is just as unbelievable – and not just the bit about astronauts surviving against the odds.

Another fact which regularly goes viral is that the woman who established the emergency system to guide astronauts back if things went wrong was also the mother of Hollywood star Jack Black.

His older brother Neil Siegel, who became an engineer ike his mother Judith Love Cohen, wrote in her obituary when she died aged 83: ‘She actually went to her office on the day that Jack was born.

‘When it was time to go to the hospital, she took with her a computer printout of the problem she was working on. Later that day, she called her boss and told him that she had solved the problem. And . . . oh, yes, the baby was born, too.’

He added: ‘My mother usually considered her work on the Apollo program to be the highlight of her career. When disaster struck the Apollo 13 mission, it was the Abort-Guidance System that brought the astronauts home safely. Judy was there when the Apollo 13 astronauts paid a “thank you” to the TRW facility in Redondo Beach.’

While US audiences have the option of watching the film on a massive screen at IMAX cinemas for the 30th anniversary, in the UK it is limited to some independent smaller cinemas, or the Science Museum IMAX screen (be quick; that showing is tonight at 7.15pm).

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