What Happens If
Scenario questions with real mechanisms
Browse consequence-first explanations about bodies, technology, society, Earth, and space.
Body & Brain
What Happens If You Don't Sleep for 48 Hours?
Sleep deprivation is not merely exhaustion. It is a systematic attack on every major system in your body.
Body & Brain
What Happens If You Don't Eat for 24 Hours?
Your body has a remarkably sophisticated emergency plan. It starts within hours of your last meal.
Body & Brain
What Happens If You Drink Too Much Water?
Yes, you can drink too much water. And the result is stranger and more dangerous than you'd expect.
Body & Brain
What Happens If You Never Exercise?
The human body was built for movement. What happens when it never moves is a long, slow process that accelerates in surprising ways.
Body & Brain
What Happens to Your Body When You Fall in Love?
Love is not a feeling. It's a neurochemical state. And it's disturbingly similar to mental illness.
Body & Brain
What Happens to Your Brain After a Breakup?
A breakup is not an emotional event that affects the brain. It is a brain event that produces emotional consequences.
Body & Brain
What Happens If You Never Brush Your Teeth?
This one starts in your mouth. It does not stay there.
Body & Brain
What Happens If You Spend All Day Sitting?
The chair is the most dangerous piece of furniture in your house.
Body & Brain
What Happens If You Stop Drinking Caffeine?
The world's most socially accepted drug has a withdrawal syndrome. Here's what it actually feels like.
Body & Brain
What Happens If You Walk 10,000 Steps Every Day?
The most famous number in health culture - where it came from, what it does, and whether you actually need it.
Body & Brain
What Happens If You Stare at a Screen All Day?
Your eyes are not broken. But they are being asked to do something they were not designed for.
Digital & Society
What Happens If You Stop Using Social Media?
The studies are in. The results are not what the optimists or the pessimists expected.
Digital & Society
What Happens If the Internet Shuts Down Worldwide?
The internet isn't a thing you can turn off. Imagining how it would break reveals how thoroughly it has become civilization's nervous system.
Earth & Space
What Happens If All Bees Disappear?
The famous Einstein quote about bees is probably fake. The science behind it is not.
Earth & Space
What Happens If Earth Stopped Rotating?
A thought experiment that reveals how deeply the spin of the planet is built into everything.
Earth & Space
What Happens If the Moon Disappeared?
The Moon is not decorative. Remove it and the Earth becomes a different planet.
Earth & Space
What Happens If You Remove Your Helmet in Space?
The answer is both better and worse than the movies suggest.
Earth & Space
What Happens If Everyone on Earth Jumped at the Same Time?
This question has a precise, calculated answer. It is very, very anticlimactic.
Earth & Space
What Happens If You Dig a Hole Through the Earth?
The exit point is not where you think. And getting there would be impossible, but the physics of falling through is beautiful.