Technology

Pagers Turned Into Weapons of War

In a modern act of sabotage, thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies exploded simultaneously across Lebanon. These everyday communication devices were secretly r

The Man Who Saved The World

In 1983, a Soviet officer prevented nuclear war by ignoring a computer warning that claimed the U.S. had launched five missiles. He correctly gambled that the a

Living Inside A Hidden Simulation

You might be living in a computer program right now. Some scientists and philosophers argue that if civilizations ever gain the power to simulate reality, they

The Lethal Elephant Foot of Chernobyl

Beneath the ruins of Chernobyl lies a deadly, melted mass nicknamed the Elephant Foot. This solidified mixture of radioactive fuel and concrete was so dangerous

The Hollywood Star Who Invented Wi-Fi

Hedy Lamarr was not just a screen icon, but the mastermind behind a radio technology that paved the way for modern Wi-Fi. She designed a secret communication sy

The Xerox Lab That Invented Everything

A research lab in California invented the personal computer, the mouse, and laser printing, but their parent company failed to capitalize on the technology. Xer

Russia’s Automated Doomsday Trigger

The Dead Hand system allows Russia to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike even if its entire military leadership is wiped out. It uses sensors to detect explosi

Nukes Detonated in Outer Space

During the Cold War, the U.S. and Soviet Union detonated nuclear weapons in space. These high-altitude explosions were so powerful they created artificial auror

The Entire Universe Is A Hologram

Our three-dimensional world may actually be a projection of data stored on a distant two-dimensional surface. Just like a flat credit card hologram creates a 3D

Life at a Million Times Speed

On a neutron star, gravity is so intense that creatures the size of sesame seeds live and think a million times faster than we do. Their entire history, from pr

A Spacecraft Lost Over Simple Math

NASA lost a 125 million dollar Mars orbiter because two engineering teams used different measurement units. One team used metric, while the other used imperial,

The First Digital Weapon of Mass Destruction

Stuxnet was the first major cyberweapon designed to physically destroy industrial hardware. Instead of stealing data, this computer worm forced nuclear centrifu

The Cold War Bug That Needed No Battery

Hidden inside a wooden gift given to a US diplomat, a Soviet listening device worked for seven years without any internal power source. It relied entirely on an

The Cat That Is Both Dead And Alive

In quantum physics, a cat hidden in a box can exist as both alive and dead at the same time. This bizarre state continues until someone opens the box to check,

The 1968 Demo That Invented Today

In 1968, Douglas Engelbart performed a demo that debuted the mouse, video conferencing, and windows. Most of the digital world we use today was born in this sin

The Billion Dollar Mystery of Computation

Can every problem with an easy-to-check answer be solved just as easily? We still do not know if these two types of tasks are fundamentally the same, leaving ou

A Musical Instrument Played With Water

The hydraulophone is a unique instrument that creates sound by physically blocking streams of water with your fingers. Unlike a flute or piano, the water itself

The African City Built On A Swamp

Nairobi was once a desolate swamp that served as a humble rail depot. Today, it is a massive urban engine and one of the largest metropolitan areas in Africa.

Remaking the Web With Browser Scripts

Greasemonkey lets you secretly rewire any website to function exactly how you want. By running custom scripts, you can permanently alter, hide, or automate part

The Green Screens Powering Our World

Although they debuted in 1971, IBM 3270 green screen terminals remain a hidden engine of the modern economy. These block-oriented systems still process many of

Computers Read Lips To Understand Speech

Computers now combine audio with lip reading to recognize speech more accurately. By watching how your mouth moves, the system clears up confusion when backgrou

The Accidental Success of VHS

VHS did not win the home video war because it was the best technology. It dominated the market simply because JVC chose to share their format for free with comp

Measuring Pollution Beyond Just Total Output

Emissions are often more revealing when measured by efficiency rather than total volume. By calculating pollution per unit of activity, we can compare the envir

The PS2 Was A Secret Supercomputer

The PlayStation 2 was so technologically advanced that the US government once restricted its export. Its powerful processor was feared to be capable of guiding