[dx_custom_adunit mobile_id=”RTK_v1lP”] 55% of the world’s population live in cities. By 2050, that’ll be two thirds of the world’s...
If you’ve ever given your cat a toy filled with catnip, you’ve probably seen the transformation happen within seconds. One moment they’re calm and...
A peaceful walk through the wilderness can become a life threatening situation in seconds when you encounter one of nature’s most powerful predators. Bears are massive...
Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Philippines is not the kind of place most people would associate with fame. The facility housed more than...
We visit a lot of planets here on WHAT IF, but K2-141b is the most extreme one yet. Are you ready to jump on board this one-way space shuttle? If you’d rather stay...
Today, more people are alive on Earth than at any other point in human history. That sounds like an enormous number, but there is one figure that puts it into...
On Christmas Day in 2007, while families around the world were celebrating the holidays, a terrifying event was unfolding at the San Francisco Zoo. Around 5 p.m., 17...
The air around you is so ordinary that you rarely think about it. Yet every breath, every sound you hear, every cloud in the sky, and every drop of liquid water depends...
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...
Deep beneath the ocean surface, where sunlight disappears and strange creatures rule the darkness, a creature exists that looks like something from a legend. Its...
Far beyond Earth, orbiting the giant planet Jupiter, lies one of the most fascinating places in the Solar System. At first glance, Europa appears to be nothing more than...
Family planning. It sounds sensible, but it’s extremely controversial. At least, in some countries. What if it wasn’t? What if the world recognized a...
She had come a long way for the view, and the view was worth it. So she unhooked the harness for a moment, just long enough to get the photograph without a cable in the...
The planet is heating up and everyone is looking for a solution, so here is one that sounds almost reasonable at first. Take every drop of water on Earth and dump it on...
Right now, a wall of ice nearly two miles thick is covering the land where Chicago used to be. And it has been moving across the continent for 20,000 years without ever...
As the world watches the war Russia brutally started in Ukraine, you wonder how these countries would be different if the dictator Vladimir Putin never took office. Who...
The king cobra is one of the most dangerous reptiles on Earth. It is the longest venomous snake in the world and can be found across India, South China, and Southeast...
Few animals in freshwater ecosystems have a reputation as intense as piranhas. Popular culture often shows them as aggressive predators capable of stripping flesh in...
Objects seemingly move by themselves, reflections are missing when you pass by mirrors. But don’t worry, this isn’t a horror story. It’s just the future. And...
Earth is often called the blue planet, and for good reason. More than 70 percent of its surface is covered by oceans that regulate temperature, drive weather systems...
