How long would it take us to turn our natural satellite into a habitable place? How would this Earth-like Moon look? Would this even be possible? Wondering why we chose...
Cities have been named after it, economies have been built on it, wars have been fought over it, your life depends on it. Salt may be the most important, and the most...
On March 25, 2017, 25 year old farmer Akbar Salubiro headed out to harvest crops in Indonesia. It was an ordinary day of work, and there was nothing to suggest that he...
Danger does not always announce itself. In many parts of the world, an ordinary trip through a city can become dangerous simply because someone happens to be in the...
In the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way, there is a supermassive black hole feeding on nearby stars. It’s called Sagittarius A*. And if a giant gravitational...
In North America we love our summers. We are basically trained to love them. From an early age we are taught that our calendar breaks up into school, and summer holidays...
In 1946, a 17 year old teenager named Willie Francis became part of one of the most disturbing execution cases in American history. After being convicted of murdering a...
With the cost of living soaring, an economic crisis, and wages that can’t be stretched enough to provide an enjoyable life, people are worried about their finances now...
Today on What If, we’re taking Jupiter’s deadly gases and unleashing them on Earth. Where could you be safe from these toxic winds? How would you breathe...
The beach is one of the first places we think of when we hear the word sand. But sand is far more important than building castles or relaxing by the ocean. It is one of...
Paul Hayward’s story does not begin in a prison cell or under chains. It begins in a normal life that slowly gets pulled off course by loyalty, pressure, and bad company...
Every year, hundreds of millions of people rely on buses to get where they need to go. In the United States alone, more than 700 million passengers travel by bus...
Where do they come from? How do we get rid of them? And how much drama is a poltergeist going to cause me? OK, so exactly what is a poltergeist? Well, a poltergeist is a...
The warning has already been published. It sits in a scientific journal, written in careful academic language, and it says something no headline wants to print:...
MSN New, Earth, Humanity
By 2126 You Could Upgrade Your Own Organs, by 3026 You Might Not Be Human at All
Your grandchildren might replace their own hearts the way you replace a phone battery. That is not the strange part. The strange part is what comes after, because if you...
MSN New, Humanity
The Attack Would Start Before a Single Soldier Landed, and You Would Feel It at the ATM
There would be no landing craft on the horizon. No sirens. No declaration on the news. The first thing you would notice is that your card does not work. That is how a...
1.3 billion years ago, two orbiting massive black holes, circling each other at 250 times a second, collided in a violent, universe-rippling explosion that sent waves of...
Betelgeuse is one of the most famous stars in the night sky. Sitting on the shoulder of the Orion constellation, this enormous red supergiant is nearly 950 times wider...
Hang on because we’re about to screech to a halt. That’s right. The Earth is going to stop spinning for five seconds. How much damage would this sudden stoppage cause...
Could you face guards who shoot to kill? Swim for hours or even days in the open sea? Or cross a vast, hostile desert? What kind of place can push a person to make these...
