historybriefs
Topic

Scientific method

The procedure for being wrong less often, imperfectly followed.

2
in history
10:50
average
22 min
in total
160
across the network
Scientific method across the network →
Refine26
Strands
Ancient 32Classical 14Medieval 58Early modern 9219th century 6420th century 170Contemporary 41War & conflict 132Empires & states 84Revolutions 71Economy & trade 26Science & technology 28Exploration 13Religion 25Everyday life 4Crime & disaster 58
Verdict
Worth your time 442Worth it in part 52
Topics
War 115Empire 77Colonialism 54Britain 52Revolution 46The Cold War 39Religion 36France 35All 133 topics →
All briefs2
video still
10:58

Carrington Event

1–2 September 1859

The Carrington Event is the only historical episode with contemporaneous, instrumented, and visual evidence tying solar activity directly to terrestrial electromagnetic disruption. It did not prove the solar–terrestrial link — that came later — but it forced astronomers to take it seriously. Its intensity remains unmatched. Its mechanism — a double-CME sequence — is plausible but not confirmed. It changed nothing in 1859 beyond prompting suspicion. Today, it anchors worst-case planning for grid failure — yet no modern system has been tested against anything like it.

video still
10:41

The Challenger Disaster

1986

A 2013 TV movie dramatises Richard Feynman’s investigation into the 1986 Challenger explosion. It establishes cold-temperature-induced O-ring failure as the cause, shows Feynman discovering he has cancer mid-inquiry, and highlights institutional resistance—but offers no evidence of what changed afterward, no contested interpretations, and no insight into the astronauts’ experience beyond their likely death at takeoff.

More from history

All briefs →
video still
12:35

Baghdad

762 AD

Baghdad’s founding in 762 was a decisive, documented act of imperial design — not evolution, not accident. It created a new kind of capital: planned, symbolic, and engineered for intellectual and administrative dominance. Its scale, longevity and influence are verifiable. Its motives and internal politics are not.

video still
9:42

Catherine the Great

1762–1796

Catherine the Great’s reign was defined by method, not motive: coup, favouritism, military appointment, and diplomatic intervention produced imperial expansion and cultural renaissance — and elevated Russia to great-power status — without requiring Enlightenment ideals to be operationalised in governance.

video still
9:32

Cesar Chavez

1965–1970

Cesar Chavez co-founded the National Farm Workers Association in Delano, California in 1962. He launched an insurance scheme, credit union, and El Malcriado newspaper. He led the Delano grape strike from 1965 to 1970. His NFWA merged with Larry Itliong’s Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in 1967 to form the United Farm Workers. He used nonviolent resistance — picketing, boycotting, public processions, Masses, and fasts — inspired by Gandhi and infused with Catholic symbolism. In the early 1970s, he opened UFW branches outside California.