Science
Impossible machines, unsettling discoveries and phenomena that are hard to imagine.
He Made Himself Ill to Overturn a Medical Certainty
A doctor swallowed a bacterium to answer a question that sounded absurd at the time: could it really live in the stomach?
The Dam That Held While the Mountain Killed the Valley.
In 1963, the Vajont Dam stayed standing. The disaster came from the mountain above the lake, and from the wave it threw into the valley below.
The day the United States detonated a nuclear bomb in space
On the night of July 8, 1962, people in Hawaii watched the sky turn colors as if it had opened above them. The explosion was more…
The Lake That Swallowed a Drilling Platform
On November 20, 1980, a drill jammed beneath a shallow Louisiana lake. Minutes later, a 150-foot rig tipped into the water. Beneath the lake, miners saw…
Eight people sealed inside a miniature Earth… whose oxygen is disappearing
In Arizona, eight people lived under glass with a forest, an ocean, crops, and animals. Sixteen months later, they opened a door and found that the…
Part of the fuselage tore away at 24,000 feet. The Boeing still landed.
The captain sees the sky behind him. Part of the cabin has disappeared, and the Boeing is still at 24,000 feet.
The Lake Never Overflowed. By Morning, Entire Villages Were Dead.
The houses were still standing. The roads were untouched. But almost nothing moved in the valley below Lake Nyos.
The Screen Showed a Minor Error. The Patient Said He Was Burning.
“Malfunction 54” looked routine, so the operator resumed treatment. Three weeks later, the same message returned.
The Screwdriver Slipped. The Room Filled with Blue Light.
Seven men watched Louis Slotin close two hemispheres around a plutonium core. When his hand slipped, he understood before anyone else.
They Glowed in the Dark. Then Their Bones Began to Fail.
Young women painted luminous dials with radium. They were told the gesture was safe. Years later, their own breath became evidence.