Imagine striking a match and having everything around you catch on fire, even if you were standing in a wet forest. And while that’s happening, imagine being...
From a bad hair day to a tragic natural disaster, wind can be extremely disruptive. Wind can be a formidable foe. But what if this powerful force just didn’t exist...
Where did life on Earth come from? It is one of humanity’s oldest and most fascinating questions. For centuries, people have searched for answers in religion...
Interstellar objects occasionally enter our Solar System, providing insight into the composition and dynamics of distant regions of the galaxy. Among these objects, the...
Scientists have pieced together a pretty clear picture of what life was like on Earth thousands, even millions of years ago. If you fast-forward one million years from...
Why is there an alligator lying completely frozen under the ice… and still alive? At first glance, it looks like something out of a frozen wasteland. A solid block of...
For thousands of years, eels have puzzled scientists, philosophers, and fishermen alike. They spend much of their lives hidden in rivers, lakes, and coastal waters, yet...
How far into the periodic table could you get? Would you be breaking any laws? At what point would your periodic table start killing you? If you’re willing to...
It starts with a signal. Faint, strange, and unlike anything humanity has ever recorded. Within hours, it escalates into an event that changes the course of history as...
Scientists have a threshold for planetary destruction. An object roughly 96 kilometers wide, striking Earth, would wipe out every living thing on the surface. Jupiter...
On a dark December night in 1995, a routine commercial flight turned into one of the most devastating aviation disasters in modern history. What began as a standard...
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...
Our water supply is limited. By the year 2025, 66% of humans around the world might face water shortages. But I know where to find delicious fresh water. The toilet...
About 50,000 years ago, we shared this planet with different hominids called the Neanderthals. Their species wasn’t human, but they weren’t far from it...
Building a permanent base on the Moon has always come with one major challenge: how do you transport enough construction materials from Earth? Every kilogram launched...
In 1044, the Chinese invented gunpowder. And we’ve been getting into trouble ever since. Fireworks are cool, nuclear warfare is not. And nuking the moon...
Some places in the Solar System have some pretty expensive rain falling on their surface. Let’s see if we could bring those home. What would it take for Earth to...
This is not some harmless hair. It’s volcanic glass and it could turn your life into an itchy, blistering existence. Uh oh. Looks like today’s forecast is volcanic...
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...
This is the world 200 million years ago. No cell phones, electricity or even other humans. Would you be able to survive in this new world? Could you get yourself a pet...
