Scientific Discoveries
Scenarios exploring how different scientific breakthroughs or their timing might have changed history
What If Antibiotics Were Never Discovered?
Exploring the alternate timeline where penicillin and other antibiotics were never discovered, radically altering modern medicine, public health, and global demographics throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
What If Artificial Intelligence Development Stalled?
Exploring the alternate timeline where artificial intelligence research hit insurmountable barriers in the early 2000s, dramatically altering the trajectory of technological development, digital economies, and global power dynamics in the 21st century.
What If Atmospheric Nuclear Testing Continued?
Exploring the alternate timeline where the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty was never signed, allowing atmospheric nuclear testing to continue throughout the Cold War and beyond, with profound environmental, geopolitical, and health consequences.
What If Australia's CSIRO Took a Different Approach to Commercialization?
Exploring the alternate timeline where Australia's premier scientific organization adopted a more aggressive commercialization strategy, potentially transforming the nation into a technology powerhouse.
What If Behavioral Economics Emerged Earlier?
Exploring the alternate timeline where behavioral economics developed in the 1940s instead of the 1970s, potentially transforming economics, policy-making, and social welfare decades ahead of our timeline.
What If Boston's University Ecosystem Took a Different Approach to Commercialization?
Exploring the alternate timeline where Boston-area universities adopted a more aggressive commercialization strategy in the 1980s, potentially reshaping the global technology landscape and establishing Boston as the dominant tech hub over Silicon Valley.