Could you imagine jumping from the kitchen window and diving into water? How fun would that be? For some people, sure. It seems unlikely, but it’s not as crazy as...
The miracle of life. A 40-week process where you developed from a single cell to fully formed human baby. All within in your mother’s womb. Now, imagine you were...
Imagine Earth covered in thick sheets of ice. And sea levels so low you could walk to a different continent. This is what our planet would look like during an ice age...
For more than half a century, rockets have been humanity’s ticket to space. They carried astronauts to the Moon, launched probes to the outer planets, and continue...
What would happen if you put a couple of physicists in a room with a rope, a box and a black hole? They might come up with a plan to power the Earth for centuries. Black...
Space is full of treasures. Literally. If we were able to extract the resources from the rocks in the asteroid belt alone, we could give $100 billion to every person on...
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...
The Japanese manga series “Attack On Titan” has captivated our imaginations and greatest fears. For those of you who are new to the show, well, it involves...
Millions of years ago, early humans lived in a world where survival was anything but guaranteed. Wild predators, unpredictable weather, and deadly diseases constantly...
Hot air balloons have fascinated people for centuries. The first successful manned hot air balloon flight took place in France in 1783, when the Montgolfier brothers...
Do you ever question the nature of your reality? Are you real? Or are you a product of some complex computer simulation? What I’m about to tell you might change...
Every year, powerful hurricanes sweep across oceans and threaten millions of people. These massive storms can destroy cities, flood coastlines, and leave behind billions...
You start your day hearing wild news. Jupiter has just swallowed Saturn. And it doesn’t stop there. Jupiter is on its way to swallow every planet in the Solar...
If you find yourself going into a freefall inside a metal tube hurtling through the clouds at hundreds of kilometers per hour, and an oxygen mask drops down right in...
Pluto has long been one of the most debated celestial bodies in our solar system. Once classified as the ninth planet, it was redefined in 2006 as a dwarf planet, a...
In 2010 an astronaut on the ISS observed a bizarre phenomenon. When he glanced out the window, he saw the Moon looked flattened when it appeared in the thickest part of...
This is the Mullaperiyar Dam. It has been around since well before your grandparents were born. And it could fail at any moment now. What could cause the dam to collapse...
A car can feel like a safe place, but under the wrong conditions, it can quickly become a deadly trap. On a hot day, temperatures inside a vehicle can rise at an...
Nuclear weapons have shaped global politics for decades, but their destructive power is almost impossible to comprehend. From the bomb that devastated Hiroshima in 1945...
If the Earth had an edge, it might look something like this, the edge of a flat Earth. A vast frozen wall at the horizon, trees growing at strange angles, and a sky that...
