More than a thousand English soldiers were killed by hailstones during the Siege of Chartres in 1360. In war, weather can turn the victor into the vanquished startlingly quickly. (Just ask the Spanish Armada or Napoleon’s Grand Armée.) The Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years’ War ended in 1360, and its conclusion turned on a single devastating hailstorm. King Edward III of England had designs on the throne of France. Edward’s son had captured the French king at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. The chaos that ensued left France vulnerable, and Edward attempted to capitalise on that...…More than a thousand English soldiers were killed by hailstones during the Siege of Chartres in 1360. In war, weather can turn the victor into the vanquished startlingly quickly. (Just ask the Spanish Armada or Napoleon’s Grand Armée.) The Edwardian phase of the Hundred Years’ War ended in 1360, and its conclusion turned on a single devastating hailstorm. King Edward III of England had designs on the throne of France. Edward’s son had captured the French king at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. The chaos that ensued left France vulnerable, and Edward attempted to capitalise on that...WW…

Imagine glowing, hissing, steaming balls of floating rock up to three metres across emerging from the depths of the ocean – these are lava balloons. Lava balloons off the coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands Lava balloons off the coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands Stavros Meletlidis, Instituto Geográfico Nacional, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons I talk with quite a few engineers, and one of the things they like to impress upon me is that every material has its breaking point. We like and trust concrete, stone, and steel to stay safe under our feet and over our heads. They...…Imagine glowing, hissing, steaming balls of floating rock up to three metres across emerging from the depths of the ocean – these are lava balloons. Lava balloons off the coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands Lava balloons off the coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands Stavros Meletlidis, Instituto Geográfico Nacional, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons I talk with quite a few engineers, and one of the things they like to impress upon me is that every material has its breaking point. We like and trust concrete, stone, and steel to stay safe under our feet and over our heads. They...WW…

The sides of Kawa Ijen, a volcano in Indonesia, are wreathed in blue flame. The yellow patches at the bottom of this picture are natural sulphur deposits – also known as brimstone. It is a valuable material. The billowing vent at the top of the volcano carries enough sulphur to support a mining operation. Pipes collect the gases, condense the sulphur, and then spit it out in molten chunks. Once those chunks cool, people collect them and carry them down from the slopes in baskets. It’s hot, hard, dangerous, and absurdly underpaid work. The sulphur in Kawa Ijen leads to one of its most...…The sides of Kawa Ijen, a volcano in Indonesia, are wreathed in blue flame. The yellow patches at the bottom of this picture are natural sulphur deposits – also known as brimstone. It is a valuable material. The billowing vent at the top of the volcano carries enough sulphur to support a mining operation. Pipes collect the gases, condense the sulphur, and then spit it out in molten chunks. Once those chunks cool, people collect them and carry them down from the slopes in baskets. It’s hot, hard, dangerous, and absurdly underpaid work. The sulphur in Kawa Ijen leads to one of its most...WW…

Earth-like planets that orbit too close to their stars are probably completely covered in lava. Astronomers have hypothesized about exoplanets – planets outside our solar system – for a long time. But the first ever definitive confirmation of an exoplanet came just thirty years ago. Since then, we’ve detected more than five thousand such planets. Based on their orbits and detectable physical characteristics, we can infer a lot… but we still know very little about them. Take TrES-2b, for example. Discovered in 2006, this exoplanet is larger than Jupiter and darker than coal. I mean that...…Earth-like planets that orbit too close to their stars are probably completely covered in lava. Astronomers have hypothesized about exoplanets – planets outside our solar system – for a long time. But the first ever definitive confirmation of an exoplanet came just thirty years ago. Since then, we’ve detected more than five thousand such planets. Based on their orbits and detectable physical characteristics, we can infer a lot… but we still know very little about them. Take TrES-2b, for example. Discovered in 2006, this exoplanet is larger than Jupiter and darker than coal. I mean that...WW…