The emergency alert just appeared on your phone. The sky is turning dark and the wind is getting unbearable. A massive column of air is spinning its way toward you. You...
Deep beneath the United States lies one of the most powerful volcanic systems on Earth. Yellowstone is not a typical volcano sitting on a mountain peak. It is a...
People have always believed all kinds of very strange things about the world. In the absence of modern science and medicine, ideas which now seem entirely bizarre could...
Imagine looking up at the night sky and learning that a black hole is racing toward Earth at nearly the speed of light. Not a giant one that swallows galaxies, but a...
Ladders have been part of human life for thousands of years. Ancient cave paintings dating back around 10,000 years even show people using ladders to reach higher places...
410 kilometers (254 miles) above the Earth. That’s where the International Space Station floats. What if you happened to be all the way up here but suddenly fell...
For thousands of years, snakes have been feared, hunted, and misunderstood. These creatures appear in almost every environment on Earth, from tropical jungles and...
For most of human history, living to old age was a rare achievement. Just over a century ago, the average life expectancy in the United States was only around 50 years...
The last time the world witnessed a total solar eclipse was in 2017, and its presence delighted enthusiastic sky watchers. But what if, instead of a rare phenomena, a...
It’s been over 200 million years since South America broke off Africa into its own continent. But now it’s behaving very strangely. It’s taking on water and going down...
Earth can be full of extremes. But today, there is only one extreme. Non-stop earthquakes that last an entire year. What would it be like to live under such shaky...
The Black Death is a deadly plague that struck Europe and Asia in the 1300s. Eventually, it killed over 50 million people worldwide. Once its bacteria infects your body...
Cats may be known as cute and playful pets, but they are still predators with sharp claws, powerful jaws, and lightning fast reflexes. While most cats avoid serious...
What would happen if you took the most energetic light source in the Universe and smashed it into a massive gravitational monster? Well, you might reverse the flow of...
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...
Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid as big as Mount Everest was headed on a deadly collision course with Earth. The impact was so devastating that it wiped out the...
Imagine a time of scientific and mathematical innovation, magic, and fertile land irrigated by the great Nile River. Ancient Egypt was a successful and intelligent...
Is intelligent alien life really out there? With powerful telescopes identifying more potentially habitable planets each year, the possibility continues to grow. But...
Greetings, future moonling. That’s right. You are among the first generation of children born on the Moon. How would your birth compare to every previous human’s...
Jeremy Sutcliffe thought the most dangerous part of his encounter with a rattlesnake was already over. In 2018, Jeremy was working in his backyard when he suddenly heard...
