Few inventors in history have become as famous as Thomas Edison. With more than 1,000 patents attached to his name, Edison helped shape the modern world through...
Some people have gone weeks, months, and even years without washing their hair. In some cases, they try special routines that avoid shampoo entirely. With the right...
Venus is the second planet from the Sun and our nearest neighbor. At its closest approach, Venus is mere 40 million km (25 million mi) away from us. After just four...
This star is about to transform into a black hole. And we’re about to travel inside it to see what’s on the other side. The only problem is that we’ll...
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...
Charla Nash had been to that house in Stamford many times. She and Sandra Herold were close friends, and she knew Travis, the 14 year old chimpanzee Herold kept as part...
The origin of “man’s best friend” isn’t entirely clear. Scientists agree that dogs evolved from wolves, but we don’t know exactly how or...
For thousands of years, woolly mammoths existed only in fossils, frozen remains, and cave paintings. But now, scientists are closer than ever to bringing these Ice Age...
It’s the matchup you’ve been waiting for, the clash between some of the biggest titans that ever roamed the Earth. Today, we’re going back in time to...
Before sunrise, deep in remote terrain, a single worker steps out of a tent into cold, uncertain weather. The job ahead is simple in theory but brutal in practice...
A century of history flashes before your eyes. Not the past, but the future. And now you know how life would unfold over the next 100 years. What changes would happen to...
For centuries, humanity has looked toward the stars searching for signs of intelligent life. But what if the biggest discovery in human history is not finding aliens...
Space tourism is much closer than you may think. The International Space Station will soon retire from its successful run through low Earth orbit. But humanity’s...
An ice storm begins when temperatures drop to around 0°C (32°F) and freezing rain turns into a layer of ice the moment it touches the ground, trees, buildings, or power...
Somewhere in the far reaches of space, a giant hunk of rock is hurtling our way, just biding its time before an extinction-level impact with Earth. Before you run into...
Right now, wherever you are, you are spinning with our planet at hundreds of meters per second. But what if our planet started hitting the brakes until our world didn’t...
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...
What would happen if you took the most energetic explosion in the Universe and sent it straight into one of the most powerful gravitational objects ever discovered? On...
Nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic, another group of fearless explorers had already reached North America. At the very edge of the...
Proxima b is very promising. It orbits a red dwarf star called Proxima Centauri in a system with three stars in it. Proxima Centauri is small. It only has between 7.5%...
