📁 Tragedies
Sad endings, lost work, and tragic fates
Stranded on a massive unknown river in 1542, Francisco de Orellana gambled on following the current…
Discover how Max Theiler tamed yellow fever by passing the virus through 100 generations of mice, c…
In 1944, a wartime blackout gave Walter Baade the dark skies needed to discover two star types, ins…
In 1847 Vienna, Dr. Semmelweis discovered unwashed hands were killing mothers. His simple chlorine …
In 1800, William Herschel used a prism and a thermometer in the dark to discover infrared radiation…
Discover how Calmette and Guérin spent 13 years forcing tuberculosis bacteria to adapt to a bile-po…
In 1887, a stray pane of glass accidentally revealed the photoelectric effect when Heinrich Hertz d…
In 1900 Havana, Walter Reed used a simple hut experiment to prove mosquitoes spread yellow fever, s…
How a Dutch doctor in 1897 Java cured paralysis by watching chickens eat rice scraps, overturning g…
How the Wright brothers used a wooden wind tunnel and a simple twist to master aerodynamics, turnin…
In 1860s London, surgeon Joseph Lister used sewage-treating carbolic acid to kill invisible germs, …
How a 1747 shipboard experiment by James Lind used simple comparison to cure scurvy and launch mode…