Some 5 billion years from now, the Sun will expand and become a red giant. And Earth might be just in the way… If humans were still around then, would we leave Earth? Or would we move it? What is the Sun’s problem anyway? Like any other star, it has […]
The reason you don’t normally sink into the sand when you go to the beach is due to a physics phenomenon known as force chain. Basically, when a bajillion grains of sand are jammed together in one place, their weight gets distributed over a large area, keeping you and your […]
Every morning or every night. Before going out. Definitely after the big game. For most people, showering is routine. But for some, it’s religion. But if lots of showering makes you feel divine, your body might be the real miracle worker. The average human spends more than a year of […]
What if we told you that supernovas aren’t the brightest events in the Universe? Gamma-ray bursts are. They shine hundreds of times brighter and only last for several minutes at most. But even a second would be enough for them to mess up all complex life on the planet. Watch […]
Imagine an entire network of flying cars zooming around 2,000 meters (6,561 feet) above our congested city streets. Your morning commute would be a lot different up there: you could travel at higher speeds and you could reach almost any remote destination. But what kinds of laws would we have […]
Neutron stars are massive gravitational monsters, and orbiting one wouldn’t end up well for our planet. But what if we took just a spoonful of it and transported it to Earth? Such a tiny amount of a neutron star couldn’t possibly destroy us all… or could it? When a star […]
Did you know that a single snake bite can kill an adult elephant in just a few hours? And if you’re not careful, snake venom can kill you in only 15 minutes. But that’s from a venomous bite. What if the venom was already collected and you took a swim […]
Take some cosmic dust and gas, then add billions and billions of planets and a whole lot of stars to the mix. Spice it all up with a handful of gravity to hold things together, and you get a galaxy. Shaken, not stirred. Some of those ingredients would get clumped […]
Elon Musk wants to nuke Mars. What are the consequences? Without nukes, life on Mars might be like this: You’d live in giant glass domes, and grow small portions of food inside. And if you happen to go outside, it would be in your big clunky spacesuit, and you wouldn’t […]
How long would it take for the world’s largest rainforest to burn down? If we don’t do anything to stop it, we’ll soon find out. The Amazon rainforest creates 20% of the Earth’s oxygen. It’s home to 30% of the planet’s species, and it holds the secrets to treating some […]
