No proof of Nikola Tesla developing a working 'death ray' exists

Nikola Tesla’s biggest dream was a worldwide network of wireless power transmission

He built the Wardenclyffe lab and a massive prototype transmission tower to develop trans-Atlantic transmission, but it was never operational. The concept was based on incorrect assumptions about Earth's conductivity, but it inspired subsequent efforts for wireless systems.

When Tesla died in 1943, the FBI seized his property for national security

Although Nikola Tesla had become increasingly eccentric in his later years, the US government wanted to ensure plans for a possible secret weapon didn’t fall into enemy hands during World War II.

Despite promoting alternative current, Nikola Tesla did not invent it

The technology was developed by Hippolyte Pixii in 1832, almost 25 years before Tesla was born. Other myths about Tesla include that he invented the transformer, radio, and the induction coil, which was invented by Nicholas Callan in 1836.

A pair of engineers began Tesla to prove the viability of electric vehicles

Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning sought to design a high-end electric sports car for environmentally motivated, affluent buyers. The Tesla Roadster would be the first highway-legal car to use lithium-ion batteries.

Read about the nine depictions of Nikola Tesla in media through 2020

Portrayals include comedic takes, like John C. Reilly's performance in Comedy Central's "Drunk History" series, and more serious interpretations, like Nicholas Hoult's performance in Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s historical drama, "The Current War."

Twain claimed to possess 'mental telegraphy'

In an 1891 essay, the writer claimed to possess psychic powers. It’s something that seemingly supported by his mother and his own death: Twain predicted he would die the day after Halley’s Comet returned in 1910, which did indeed happen.

Scientists have diverted the path of lightning using lasers

A proof of concept for a laser protection system, which could be used to protect launchpads and airports in the future, was conducted on the Säntis mountain in northeastern Switzerland. Rapid laser pulses heated air molecules, creating a more conductive, 50-meter (164-foot) path for the electrical discharge to travel through.

Despite claims of limitless free energy, zero-point energy cannot be harnessed

Because quantum mechanics prevents systems from ever reaching an energy value of zero, a seemingly empty vacuum of space still contains some amount of energy associated with its lowest allowed state. Since descending to even lower states is forbidden, extracting meaningful amounts of energy from an empty vacuum is impossible.

A 36-year-old Russian physicist survived a particle accelerator beam to the head

Several safety mechanisms failed during Anatoli Bugorski's inspection of malfunctioning equipment at the U-70 synchrotron, the Soviet Union's largest particle accelerator. Despite receiving as much as 600 times the lethal dose of radiation to the brain, he has shown no intellectual damage and worked until the age of 77.

Ballistic experiments show that tardigrades are unlikely to be an alien species

Those fired from guns at speeds as high as 825 meters per second (1,845 mph) could be resuscitated after impact. Shock pressure from greater speeds tore apart the samples, suggesting they could not survive asteroid impacts if brought to Earth from outer space.

Credit for inventing the laser was fought over for nearly three decades

Although Theodore Maiman built the first working laser in 1960, Gordon Gould coined the term earlier. Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow of Bell Labs filed a patent after Gould came up with the idea and name, but before Gould filed his patent.

Cathode rays are beams of electrons that emit light when hitting a fluorescent screen

When these beams are emitted into an evacuated tube containing charged plates or a nearby magnet, deflections are observed due to the electron charge. In 1897, J.J. Thomson's calculations of this deflection led to his discovery of the subatomic particle.

Neutron star types, categorized by the presence of strong magnetic fields and radiation beams

Magnetars have magnetic fields about 1,000 times stronger than the average neutron star—roughly a trillion times stronger than Earth's. Pulsars emit beams of radiation from their magnetic poles, which appear as flickering radio wave signals as the object spins.

As of 2023, the world's smallest particle accelerator is smaller than a penny

The prototype is an example of a photonic accelerator, which utilizes tiny lasers to accelerate electrons rather than relying on oscillating electromagnetic fields to move them. It can deliver about 1 electron per second with energies equivalent to those found in cathode-ray tube televisions.

Why death is caused by a dearth of ATP

Though people die from many causes, this video makes the case that a lack of adenosine triphosphate production in the body is what kills almost all of us. Without ATP, physiological processes grind to a halt, and organs stop functioning.

You can draft a will designed to block AI resurrection—but the request may be ignored

Ars Technica spoke with legal experts about how—and if—people could design their wills to prevent AI resurrection. Though this is not yet a common request, one lawyer suggested that people worried about living on in an AI format can draft a power of attorney and a will that prevents those in charge of one's estate from submitting any texts, voice, image, writings, or other personal information to any AI tools.

A breakdown of the Detonation Research Test Facility, which features a 500-foot explosion tube

Located at Texas A&M University, DRTF is the largest explosions lab in the world as of 2026 and features a steel-and-concrete structure that scientists use to initiate and track explosions with split-second precision. Among the facility's goals are studying the large industrial explosions, hypersonic flight, and supernovae.

Some scientists argue NDEs are constructed by the brain, not actually experienced

Despite the powerful memories associated with NDEs, scientists question the idea that the experiences prove consciousness endures after death, opting instead to find physiological explanations for common reports of out-of-body experiences, euphoric and lucid thinking, and more.

'I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.'

-Inventor and businessman Thomas Edison (1847-1931)

The foundation for computer viruses was published after its creator's death

In the late 1940s, Hungarian American mathematician, scientist, and engineer John von Neumann gave a series of lectures where he explained the theoretical framework for a computer program that could replicate itself—the von Neumann Universal Constructor. His lectures were later compiled and published in 1966, nine years after his death from cancer.

Everything you know about Phineas Gage is wrong

A stray spark sent a 3.5-foot-long, 1.25-inch thick iron rod through the brain of foreman Phineas Gage in 1848, creating a scientific case that has attracted onlookers for nearly two centuries. His life reportedly soon spiraled out of control, with his behavior tending toward selfishness and chaos. Evidence of these changes is far less common, with Gage's story bloated by fabrication, scientific prejudice, and artistic license.

Science fiction or new technology?

Dystopian literature is no longer relegated to the page, with innovations like the Tesla Cybertruck and Meta virtual reality headsets mirroring the aesthetics of texts like "The Running Man" and "Neuromancer." In this essay, Casey Michael Henry argues that the images from these works remain while their messages have faded.

The story of the Manhattan Project's unused demon core

A 3-inch, 14-pound sphere of nuclear reactive plutonium-gallium was set to be delivered to the Pacific Theater in 1945 to become the third atomic bomb dropped over Japan. When Japan surrendered, it was returned to Los Alamos in New Mexico for experiment, where two scientists would die testing whether the core could reach criticality—where it would release intense energy—via the use of a dense reflector. Watch the story here.

How a solar eclipse proved Einstein's theory of gravity

For hundreds of years, Isaac Newton's laws of gravity and motion accurately predicted every observation and measurement involving orbits. With the advance of technology, more precise measurements revealed anomalies, including the orbit of Mercury, which Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity could explain. This article details the two frameworks and how they went head-to-head during an eclipse for gravitational supremacy.

Gamma Knife surgery uses incredibly precise, high-energy light to treat patients

A form of brain stereotactic radiosurgery, this non-invasive technology concentrates beams of light onto specific tumors to damage the DNA of malignant cells, killing them. The gamma rays used are in the same part of the electromagnetic spectrum as those produced in nuclear reactions, cosmic ray collisions, and radioactive decay.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Neutron stars, the remains of some massive stars after they explode in a supernova, are the densest directly observable objects in the universe.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Marburg virus, related to Ebola, is also extremely deadly, and has no available vaccine.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Many legends about George Washington, including his supposed wooden teeth and the story of cutting down the cherry tree, lack evidence.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

See this overview of the firework rules across all 50 states, ranging from a complete ban on non-professional fireworks in Massachusetts to states with more lax rules like Indiana.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.