Two Years to a Vaccine
She kept faith in a molecule everyone else abandoned.
In brief
A researcher keeps testing an idea her field rejected, until an emergency makes it the fastest vaccine ever built.
14 min read1990 – 2020
Open the timeline Humankind’s finest stories, told as illustrated timelines.
True stories. But what if?
Today’s pick:
Turing: Breaking the Unbreakable
What if Turing had never taken on the German navy’s code?.
What if Turing had never taken on the German navy’s code?
In brief
In 1939, nobody else at Bletchley Park was working on the German navy’s Enigma code, so Alan Turing chose to work on it. Turing’s work became central to breaking the code. In 1952, Britain put Turing on trial for being gay.
18 min read1930 – 2021
Open the timeline Science & Technology
View all
The Sun Gets Cheap
Engineers kept cutting costs until sunlight beat coal.
In brief
Decades of small, stubborn improvements turn a lab curiosity into the cheapest electricity in history.
16 min read1954 – 2020
Open the timeline Great Endeavors
View all
Eleven Minutes to the Moon
One landing, and a thousand choices to make it survivable.
In brief
Eleven minutes of descent, and the thousand earlier decisions that decided whether anyone would walk away.
18 min read1961 – 1969
Open the timeline 
Thirty-Three Hours Over Water
A young pilot flew alone where others had vanished.
In brief
One pilot, one engine, and an ocean that had already taken the people who tried before him.
12 min read1919 – 1927
Open the timeline Society
The Long Road to the Bridge
Ordinary people chose to walk, knowing what waited.
In brief
Marchers accept the price in advance, and each decision along the road raises the cost of turning back.
20 min read1963 – 1965
Open the timeline Biographies
The Maid Who Would Not Yield
A teenager argued her way to an army, and paid for it.
In brief
A farm girl persuades a court, leads an army, and keeps her word to the end, at a cost she knew.
15 min read1429 – 1431
Open the timeline More shelves coming: Arts, Human Achievements, Religion.