The Internet Was Weeks Away From Disaster and No One Knew

The Economist

In 1998, the HIV drug ritonavir mysteriously failed production when capsules developed insoluble needle-like crystals, revealing the phenomenon of polymorphism—where identical molecules can spontaneously rearrange into different crystal structures with vastly different properties, threatening any pharmaceutical's viability.

The Economist

CERN produces antimatter—the universe's most expensive substance at $1 billion per gram—to solve why matter dominates our universe when the Big Bang should have created equal parts matter and antimatter, requiring physicists to find subtle violations of fundamental symmetries without breaking the Standard Model.

The Economist

Asbestos, a fireproof mineral once celebrated for saving lives from urban fires, has become a global health crisis causing millions of deaths from lung disease and cancer due to decades of industrial suppression and weak regulations.

The Economist

This video traces how Boston merchant Frederic Tudor built a global billion-dollar monopoly shipping natural ice from New England to tropical climates using ancient Persian preservation techniques, transforming American cities and food distribution through the "cold chain"—while Dr. John Gorrie's quest to cure yellow fever patients sparked the mechanical refrigeration that would ultimately destroy Tudor's empire.