iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

The very last drop of gasoline gets squeezed onto a Twinkie. We are now eating the dinosaurs directly. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

A tiny hagfish blob expands by 10,000 times to stop sharks in their tracks. Scale that to humans and one sneeze could slime an entire subway car. New York commuters, take notes. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Forget pepper spray — what if you could spit a tiny blob that explodes into an 800-foot slime net? The hagfish figured this out millions of years ago and we're just catching up. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

Mountains grew out of molten rock lakes in minutes on the moon. We've got the photos. We need you to trace them. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

Middle school Kirby would feel way more popular in a world where everyone's mapping lunar craters. Same honestly. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Professional citizen scientists with mouse sponsorships and their own sports drinks coming to a science bar near you. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Reality dating shows but you advance to the next round by mapping the most impact melt flows. Romance meets lunar geology. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 18/01/2026

Forget the Kardashians - the future water cooler conversation is about who found the best boulder on the moon last night. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Four billion years ago you could watch glowing lava waterfalls cascade down freshly formed lunar craters from your backyard. Now you can map them from your couch. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

Science bars are coming to replace sports bars. Instead of watching the game, you'll be cheering on competitive boulder counters on Twitch. Listen now at whattheif.com

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Reposted by What The IF?

Anne Fizzard @annefizzard.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Re. "flying reindeer ...1,500-pound mammals migrating through your town like Canada geese. Suddenly those goose droppings don't seem so bad." Another awesome thought experiment from @whattheif.bsky.social - fun science podcast from @philipashane.bsky.social, Prof. Matt Stanley, & Dr. Gaby Paniccia

whattheif.com

Santa's MEGA Fauna! — WHAT THE IF?

Santa's sleigh won't fly, but a reindeer dirigible with forty hovering mammals just might.

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

What if NASA's budget got cut in half while China built moon bases? Guess who wins that space race. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Scientists at Los Alamos literally held uranium chunks apart with a screwdriver in an experiment called "tickling the dragon's tail" until one day the screwdriver slipped. Listen now at

whattheif.com

WHAT THE IF?

We build NEW WORLDS as we learn REAL SCIENCE about the limits of the COSMOS. Join us in exploring the science of SPACE, cosmology, physics, life, the UNIVERSE and everything! How do we do it? By…

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

The actual nuclear reactor is only the size of a truck but needs massive cooling infrastructure because apparently even space gets too hot when you're splitting atoms. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

NASA wants to put a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030 because two-week-long lunar nights make solar panels pretty useless for powering moon bases. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

No more sweating means everyone walks around panting like dogs with their tongues out during important meetings. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

The Vera Rubin Observatory spotted 2,000 asteroids on its first night - imagine what a telescope the size of Earth's orbit could find! Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 19/07/2025

Fungi can trade superpowers through Starship elements, but humans just get awkward handshakes. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Scientists named genetic elements after Star Trek because they kept seeing Vulcan hand signs in their data. Listen now at whattheif.com

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Reposted by What The IF?

Niayesh Afshordi @nafshordi.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

#BattleoftheBigBang is finally here! Take advantage of a 30% discount by using this discount code (UCPNEW) when ordering from: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

A picture of a hard copy of our book, “Battle of the Big Bang” on a coffee table

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

The universe might be stuck in cosmic Groundhog Day where every Big Bang leads right back to another Big Bang in an endless loop. Listen now at whattheif.com

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Reposted by What The IF?

Philip Shane @philipashane.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

This weekend I will be teaching a session within the Sundance Institute's weekend intensive, "NAVIGATING AI IN FILMMAKING" on June 13-15. Registration for the online weekend program is closing very soon, learn more at collab.sundance.org/catalog/Navi...

collab.sundance.org

Navigating AI in Filmmaking

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Infinite copies of you are scattered across millions of light years right now, just waiting their turn to have this exact conversation. Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 01/06/2025

Life emerged from the oceans but what if we never figured out how to breathe on land? Time for some evolutionary do-overs! Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 31/05/2025

Dr. Vanessa Pirotta from Australia helps us figure out how to redesign civilization when breathing requires a good dunking! Listen now at whattheif.com

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What The IF? @whattheif.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

Swimming to the surface for air? That's so whale. Real humans dive down to get their oxygen fix in this topsy-turvy world! Listen now at whattheif.com

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