Unexplainable
Unexplainable takes listeners right up to the edge of what we know ... and then keeps right on going. This Vox podcast explores scientific mysteries, unanswered questions, and all the things we learn by diving into the unknown. New episodes every Wednesday.
126
A 150-year-old human
Two scientists. A billion-dollar wager. One unanswered question: Is the first human who will live to 150 already alive?
27 min
127
How low can you go?
Earlier this year, Nicole Yamase explored the bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest place in the ocean, where few people have ever been.
25 min
128
The tornado problem
8 minutes, 24 seconds.
21 min
129
Moon poop
Astronauts left something on the moon that could help unlock the origins of life itself.
21 min
130
Hot pink flying squirrels
An accidental discovery on a nighttime walk led one scientist and his team to wonder: How many mammals glow under ultraviolet light?
27 min
131
Henrietta Leavitt and the end of the universe
In the early 1900s, Henrietta Leavitt made one of the most important discoveries in the history of astronomy: a yardstick to measure distances to faraway stars.
28 min
132
How do animals know where to go?
25 min
133
Invasion of the jumping worms
These worms are fast, they’re mysterious, and they’re quickly changing North American ecosystems.
23 min
134
The many heights of Mount Everest
How tall is the world’s tallest mountain?
26 min
135
Unexplainable Flying Objects
UFOs are real, but that doesn’t mean they’re aliens.
29 min
136
The hunt for a new Pluto
Something strange is going on at the outer reaches of the solar system.
30 min
137
Cloudy with a chance of chaos
It’s surprisingly hard to predict how clouds form, move, and change.
25 min
138
A new force of nature?
Last month, physicists at Fermilab in Illinois found that tiny subatomic particles called muons were wobbling strangely.
22 min
139
Placebos work. Why?
For decades, scientists thought that placebos only worked if patients didn’t know they were taking them.
23 min
140
A virus that could heal people
In 2016, the UN declared antibiotic-resistant bacteria the “greatest and most urgent global risk.” Our best hope just might be phages,
21 min
141
The Twilight Zone of the ocean
A dive into its mysterious depths
24 min
142
The viral ghosts of long Covid
Scientists don’t understand why so many people suffer from Covid-19 symptoms for months, long after they stop testing positive.
22 min
143
Is a ton of psychology just ... wrong?
Psych!
27 min
144
It’s ball lightning!
A perfect sphere of crackling light
23 min
145
Skeleton Lake
When scientists examined the DNA of ancient bones found near a Himalayan lake, they were forced to confront a seemingly impossible conclusion.
25 min
146
Journey Toward the Center of the Earth
What lies beneath our feet?
25 min
147
No one nose
Believe it or not, scientists still don't know how the sense of smell works.
26 min
148
Most of the universe is missing
Scientists all over the world are searching for dark matter: an invisible, untouchable substance that holds our universe together.
30 min
149
Introducing Unexplainable
2 min