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...
Today on What If, we’re going to build the highest bridge on planet Earth. Welcome to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the “Roof of the World.”It’s home to the world’s...
A sudden reduction in size, shrinking by one centimeter per second, would expose a human to progressively smaller scales of the natural world, from ordinary objects to...
Are all of your memories real? Did everything happen the way you remember it? What if somebody filled your brain with memories that aren’t yours? Would you be able...
Would you dare to hit the open seas and experience some of the worst ship disasters of all time? From explosions to icebergs and massive storms to the infamous...
The captain sounds the alarm. The waters around the ship rumble. Strange lights from deep below inch closer and closer to you. Something is emerging from the Mariana...
Would you ever venture into the ocean if you knew this creature could be lurking beneath you? It’s twice the size of a T. rex, its jaws are big enough to crush...
The night is dark and stormy at the beach. A crowd prays to the thunder in the skies. All hail the god of chaos, who sleeps no more. Cthulhu, the great, green, bringer...
If our Moon suddenly vanished, Earth would already face dramatic consequences. But replacing it with entire alien worlds would take things to an entirely different level...
What if Earth’s orbit ventured as far from the Sun as Pluto, and got as close to it as Venus? Would the Sun burn the planet to a crisp at the closest...
Imagine what it would be like to have miniature version of our Sun right here on Earth. Would this artificial star provide us with an infinite supply of clean energy...
We can build really big things in space. Okay, not that big – yet. But we’ve packed the Earth’s lower orbit with about 5,000 satellites – some...
Sixty six million years ago, a colossal asteroid crashed into what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. It triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs and wiped out...
The Centers for Disease Control claims that 1 in 3 antibiotic prescriptions are unnecessary. Unnecessary antibiotics cause the body to build up a resistance to those...
We sure love our roads. We love them so much that we seem determined to pave the entire world. But maybe roads can become the future of renewable energy. That’s right...
Beneath the Earth’s surface lies the core, a scorching sphere of iron surrounded by a layer of molten metal. Temperatures at the core reach approximately 6,000°C...
Imagine looking up at the moon and seeing space dust floating around it. Maybe broken-off parts of the moon are raining down on Earth. You’d wonder what happened;...
That star at the center of our Solar System, that superhot ball of plasma that gives us heat and energy, and amazing complexions… well, it’s a ticking time...
With so many amazing things happening in the world today, what could possibly go wrong? Well… A giant asteroid is barrelling on a collision course with Earth, and...
At first thought, volcanoes might seem like the perfect natural disposal system. They are incredibly hot, appear to swallow anything in their path, and seem limitless in...
