Mysterious Cold Cases Solved by Science

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Sometimes cold cases are forgotten about for decades, or even centuries! Here's a few REALLY cold cases that were eventually solved by Science! Join Stefan Chin for a thrilling new episode of SciShow.
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Sources:
Sources:
www.vice.com/en/article/wx8bg...
www.nature.com/articles/s4324...
www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...
sports.yahoo.com/animation-us...
www.nationalgeographic.com/sc...
www.theguardian.com/world/202...
www.nationalgeographic.com/sc...
www.nature.com/articles/ncpga...
books.google.ca/books?id=7bkl...
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11905...
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
books.google.ca/books/about/T...
journals.plos.org/plosone/art...
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.c...
www.history.com/news/franklin...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
www.thermofisher.com/blog/ask...
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[@SciShow]

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[@amazeangelogames3165]

Yeah

[@SweetChicagoGator]

How about a follow-up for more unsolved cases?

[@beckyanderson988]

My personal theory with the case of the royals is that the older sister went with the youngest and tried to escape while injured and that is why they were buried separately because there is an instinct in many older siblings to always put their younger sibling first and trying to get Alexi out would have guaranteed at least one line of Royalaty in Russia staying alive

[@suchnothing]

Similar to Frozen, Jurassic Park determined the average running speed for a T-Rex. One scientist had calculated a running speed, but did a bad job, and estimated a speed that was way too fast. When the Jurassic Park team tried to create a running CGI T-Rex, it looked silly at that running speed, so they slowed it down until it looked normal. Turns out, the speed Jurassic Park landed on was pretty accurate. The Jurassic Park situation encouraged other scientists to check the first guy's work, and with better techniques they landed on about the same running speed that Jurassic Park did. Because of that, scientists now frequently use CGI models to test their hypothesized speeds and movement patterns for extinct animals.

[@mellokello]

cool!

[@13vatra]

Must go faster!

[@YasminCarli]

Cool

[@teddy_miljard]

T-Rex and the theory of relavity makes it look silly 🤭

[@bluecollarmenproductions]

That’s so cool.

[@SuicidialDolphin]

So all I got from this video is that scientists are just people who enjoy gossip so much, they’ll push physics beyond the limits of human knowledge to get some tea

[@khills]

😂 Doctors literally sit around and try to diagnose long-dead famous historical figures (and fictional ones), and can actually get papers published on their diagnoses, so… yup. You’re absolutely right. 😂😂😂

[@acerniss]

why does this sound so accurate-

[@barbaralemons4741]

...mayhaps

[@SleepIntoTheDiamondLife]

why does this make so much sense!! 😂😂

[@shirokira6513]

They're people too 😂 😅

[@kurdt_]

The Inuit had actually known the whereabouts of the two lost ships of the Franklin Expedition for centuries; they'd witnessed it firsthand and passed the information down through generations. Several of their community members actually approached archeologists and the canadian government and told them about it but their claims were dismissed. Its just that nobody bothered to listen to them until the 21st century 🙃 When they finally did, they found the ships.

[@penname8441]

+

[@sleepybraincells]

is there somewhere I can read about this?

[@nerdoo143]

Wendigoon did a piece on this here on KZbin

[@Bluedragon2513]

L government

[@watermelonspice513]

I love white ppl! They’re the best and most inclusive and always listen to everyone!

[@pedroff_1]

300 years from now, SciShow Future releases a video: "How to reconstruct burnt letters from atmospheric composition"

[@12thsonofisrael]

But, then you will still need to make sure that you puree the ashes...

[@CraftyF0X]

Ahaha I was so ready to write that comment but here it is already :D

[@smiller2044]

Pedro Franca sure they're already working on it 😆 and how to truly "erase" or destroy letters. But in 300 years, I expect they'll be a digital version. How to efficiently scrub the Internet!

[@davidbeppler3032]

Hillary's E-mails! lmao

[@fringelilyfringelily391]

@@12thsonofisrael Indeed, I think if the burnt page is relatively intact, text can be recovered on burnt materials.

[@oneminuteofmyday]

My mother was really into the Romanov murders and the Anastasia/Anna Anderson story. She also read books about others who claimed to be Romanov children. I remember my ex coming home with the newspaper article on the bodies being identified. My first question was if they had found Anastasia. I knew my mother would be very disappointed.

[@stephenking5852]

Princess Anastasia would be the perfect Russian Disney Princess.

[@mckenziemcintyre1651]

@@stephenking5852 not sure if your joking or not but she actually is! If your joking then just ignore

[@stephenking5852]

@@mckenziemcintyre1651 what do you mean she already is a Disney princess? If you’re talking about the animated movie, which I’ve seen a hundred times as a kid, it wasn’t made by Disney.

[@mckenziemcintyre1651]

@@stephenking5852 Really? I thought it was disney. Its on disney plus

[@stephenking5852]

@@mckenziemcintyre1651 it is!? Cool!

[@Cinderbloom]

The missing eyeballs and tongues in the Diatlov pass was almost certainly done by scavengers.

[@LucasCarter2]

Yep, no doubt they’re used to avalanches leading to dead animals so when a scavenging animal hears the sound of an avalanche it probably starts licking its chops or beak or whatever.

[@malcolmmacdonald3597]

I think one of the hikers was face down in a little stream made by melting snow and the watery environment accelerated the decomposition. I can't remember exactly, though. Also probably scavengers.

[@gunkwizardry]

yeah thats what i was thinking. scavenging animals will tend to first go for the easiest bits of meat they can get (eyes, tongues, stuff like that) without ripping flesh apart, especially if they live in a colder climate where ripping open carcasses would be more energy and intensive, requiring them to stay in one place longer and potentially get exposed to the elements longer.

[@notbill08]

The hikers did not sleep in their underwear! I'm not buying the avalanche theory at all!

[@Abyss-Will]

@@notbill08 they where having a "party" maybe???

[@llabronco]

Would love to see a part 2 with more of these!

[@BlackReshiram]

yeah me too!

[@griffinlovesmemezuwu5269]

Honestly

[@TheRealCyberJman]

SECONDED!!!

[@anyascelticcreations]

Me, too!

[@moogleydoot]

yessss

[@orenashkenazi9813]

Interesting side note: the thing stopping Napoleon from escaping again is that the first time, he was only "exiled" on the honor system. When he felt like going back to France, he got on a boat and did it. The second time they put guys with guns to stop him from doing that again.

[@littleraeofsunshine]

And the fact that St. Helena is in the middle of nowhere South Atlantic didn't hurt

[@harrietharlow9929]

True and the fact that St. Helena is an extremely remote island helped to keep Napoleon right where the British wanted him.

[@audrianamichelin8726]

Imagine burning a letter thinking it's over only for nosy scientists in 3056 to find a way to differentiate the burned pieces in the wind and find out my business

[@notfiction9241]

Dang, gunna have to find a new way to vaporise all my criminal confessions.

[@fireriffs]

Well, if it's that far in the future I don't think it will matter, lol.

[@notfiction9241]

@@fireriffs that’s one of my crimes, it’s against nature, so now I’m going to live forever lol.

[@Karin_Allen]

I look forward to meeting you in 3056 and asking how you feel about it. 😉

[@erendidanavarro721]

There was a scene from the movie, The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie and Jonny Depp, where her character burns a letter and some agents retrieve it and they used some top level technology to be able to decipher what was said in it. idk if its real but the concept exists lol

[@robinhahnsopran]

Science PLUS weird historical mysteries?! This is the content of my literal dreams! ✨

[@sandrameesala6804]

Anyone else find it absolutely freaking chilling that the two kids were buried separately?! Why? What happened that they had to make a second grave?!

[@nirfz]

Looks like: hiding and then running away and still getting caught.

[@EmilyKinny]

@@nirfz and that makes the rumor even more understandable... perhaps someone had helped the two youngest hide, didn't know that they hadn't escaped, and accidentally started the rumor by recounting their limited perspective of the story.

[@Peta4241]

The Bolsheviks didn't want people to know they had killed the whole family (they hid the executions from the public for 8 years) so they buried the family separately so if the bodies were accidentally discovered people wouldn't know they were the Romanov's bodies. "Yurovsky separated the Tsarevich Alexei and one of his sisters to be buried about 15 metres (50 ft) away, in an attempt to confuse anyone who might discover the mass grave with only nine bodies"

[@jade3886]

They didn’t want people knowing the whole family was dead, that and people have said that they were running out of room for the bodies.

[@alexbanks4219]

@@Peta4241 that doesn't make sense. Didn't they kill them in the first place to prevent people from supporting the royals? If they said they only killed some of the royals, it doesn't achieve their objective of ending/winning the civil war.

[@jessical4866]

“Just burn them instead.” That’s definitely the most secure method we have now… as long as there aren’t any digital or photographic records of it having once existed.

[@12thsonofisrael]

But, then you will still need to make sure that you puree the ashes...

[@thevegastan]

Or better, blast them with a shockwave that will rip them apart structurally and alter them microscopically.

[@timmcdaniel6193]

The etiquette writer Miss Manners noted that the only correct way to store incriminating letters is in the fireplace, between burning logs.

[@GeorgeVCohea-dw7ou]

Didn't they utilise and recover words from the ash of a burned letter as a plot point in the movie, _The Tourist?_

[@michaelj.beglinjr.2804]

@@GeorgeVCohea-dw7ou --- I don't know. I've never met anyone that's actually seen that movie before.

[@peilingpey697]

in theory, could the technology used to read marie-antoinette's affair letters also be applied to the letters written between john laurens and alexander hamilton?

[@lexiexcx]

👀 that would be interesting

[@harrietharlow9929]

@@lexiexcx Very.

[@savagegardenrox]

Worth noting that the Terror and Erebus were found pretty much exactly where the nearby native peoples said they were when they had been asked for clues decades ago. But because the native people were citing orally passed down stories from their predecessors, their information was dismissed

[@Dexy83]

As someone with chronic heartburn, frequently caused by H. Pylori, I imagine Napoleon must have had some awful heartburn years before there was Tum's!

[@noahmccann4438]

Maybe copying the letters was intended to obfuscate the source of the letter by changing the handwriting, and perhaps provide plausible deniability? Like “oh that’s just something I wrote for myself, a fictional tale”. But depending on the content, that may be more unlikely. It seems to me like he wanted a way to mitigate the risk of the letters while still being able to remember the sentiment of them (more important in a time where text might be the only thing capturing a memory).

[@Samhalta]

Not completely sure, but keeping copies of non-private correspondance was something people did. Perhaps those letters were dear enough to him that he wanted to keep a copy of them. After all, Marie-Antoinette died not long after their affair. That being said, correspondence worked differently back then and most letters would be read aloud to several people, so I'm not sure of what practices were in place with personal letters such as these.

[@Ocrilat]

Then why keep Marie Antoinette's name on it? He probably just wanted to protect his reputation (or her's, or his family's). The changes I've seen just soften the tone, more or less. Why did he copy them? Well, she was imprisoned at the time...the letters may have arrived in code, and he decoded them by hand. Then later, he edited out the more embarrassing parts from the 'original' copy.

[@noahmccann4438]

@@Ocrilat that’s a good point, I hadn’t considered that letters might have been written in code. I wonder if future generations would be as fascinated by the ways in which we communicate now, as people are of those from the time being discussed here. While we still write letters today, the rituals and best practices and meanings have entirely changed. At the very least, it’s interesting to ponder.

[@Ocrilat]

​@@noahmccann4438 Well, we still are interested when possible diaries, letters etc. are found by more contemporary political figures (even if many turn out to be forgeries). So the interest is there. Imagine being able to unlock a at one point unlockable iPhone with texts or emails from a current or future historical or cultural figure. It's not how the information is stored that matters. And really what's the basic differences between an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic and an emoji? They're both graphic representations of words or concepts.

[@samadhoosen6014]

That Dyatlov pass story is something else - Lemmino did a great video on it. He describes the most likely series of events. Like why were they undressed and missing their eyeballs and tongues if it was an avalanche

[@lunathemadman]

Came down here to mention this. I was actually impressed by the plausibility of it.

[@CatCaffeine]

Ask A Mortician did a couple of great videos on this as well.

[@Zalied]

the tent catching fire explains all the burns and why they cut out and why they left fast. which is i think i remember him talking about. then the injuries were all explained through falling off a cliff or something. its still more plausable than "an avalanch we had no signs of"

[@clogs4956]

Eyes and tongues are tasty titbits for scavengers.

[@davidbarnett342]

Birds will eat your soft bits right after death.

[@DamiesEvilTwin]

iirc the inuit knew all along where the ship was but weren't believed, and also the locals said that the expedition fell prey to cannibalism as well

[@laurenconrad1799]

Caitlin Doughty from Ask a Mortician did THE best Romanov death video I've ever seen. It's super comprehensive and incredibly enjoyable to watch. History geeks, check it out!

[@wasted_youth3081]

Yes! I binged her videos 'cos its entertaining and informative

[@carnuatus]

Dyatlov pass: avalanche, panic, possible animal attack or further avalanche (hence climbing trees) and hypothermia (hence paradoxical undressing.) The eyes and tongues were likely animal predation, since the soft tissues are easiest to access and remove. The lamps explain radiation but also at least one of the hikers worked or studied in a field wherein he dealt with radiation.

[@14Tdawg14]

If I recall the autopsy report, I believe the individual with the missing tongue was found to have blood in their stomach, and the tongue was removed at the base, which would suggest they lost their tongue while alive

[@benenwren4110]

@@14Tdawg14 Or the blood could have flowed after death due to gravity. For example the body could've shifted position due to the snow compacting or got yanked around by birds trying to get the tongue out.

“paradoxical undressing,” because they were m0r0ns that hadn’t been in a very cold environment ever before.

[@HermanVonPetri]

@ Hypothermia affects a person's reasoning ability. And the body tends to divert warm blood from the extremities to the core which can make a person feel warmer than they are. Undressing in freezing temperatures is a well documented symptom of a person succumbing to hypothermia. It's called "paradoxical undressing."

[@evilsharkey8954]

@ a person in the final stage of hypothermia isn’t in their right mind at all. At that point, they’re delirious and start to feel warm, hence the undressing.

[@kyrab7914]

I find it interesting that for ages Europeans didn't know what happened to the Franklin expedition because they didn't believe the natives when they were asked about it. And replied something like "oh, those guys? Turned cannibal"

[@westzed23]

The searchers dismissed the information that the got from the Inuit because they would not believe oral history. The disappearance of the ships and crew sent searchers out a couple of years later, and ever since people have been searching continuously for them. That covers a lot time for stories and misinformation to occur. They should have listened to the Inuit in the first place.

[@kyrab7914]

@@westzed23 according to what I read, healthy dose of racism too. Combo of not believing oral history and not believing good European men would go cannibal like they said

[@naimvelasquez6079]

PLEASE make this a series, i could spend hours and hours watching and rewatching this type of content, 10/10

[@antoniousai1989]

Marie Antoinette wasn't the last Queen of France. It was the last Queen before the revolution, but after the Restauration, there have been other 4 consorts to French monarchs.

[@kourii]

While you're right that she wasn't the last Queen of France, Louis XVIII and Charles X's wives predeceased their husbands' accessions, so they never were Queen. Only Louis-Philippe's wife Marie-Amélie was queen

[@andrews9691]

Restaurantation*

[@tukuiPat]

@@andrews9691 Restoration**

[@acerniss]

@@andrews9691 oh yeah, the restaurantation near my house has such brilliant food it’s amazing

[@Youtube221B]

Ooooh. This is an interesting list. If there are more cold case file breakthroughs, it would be cool to hear more about it. If I heard about this when I was a kid, I'd be excited to become a scientist.

[@notfiction9241]

I’ve been binging the Crime Junkies podcast and assumed this video would talk about there ‘Season of Justice’: police have been using genealogy to narrow down murder suspects to a particular family. It’s been used to solve several decades old cold cases in the last few years.

[@Kyhic75]

Don't think I've watched any SciShow since I was in high school 10 years ago. Nice to know you guys are still kicking!

[@Lilobeetle]

I remember the Franklin Expedition was mentioned in my lectures on toxicology. There is a 2016 paper that concludes zinc deficiency might have been a more likely cause of death. The story is a bit more creepy than just a ship's crew being locked in ice and then leaving on foot. There a hints that the crew might have resorted to cannibalism.

[@sophierobinson2738]

Caitlin Doughty ( ask a mortician) covered the Dyatlov Pass Incident, too.

[@Dee-jp7ek]

she covered a couple of these

[@rachelcookie321]

Did she conclude it was an avalanche?

[@oneminuteofmyday]

@@rachelcookie321 here’s her link for the avalanche theory. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aGq3fKJ6rLCFmaM

[@KryssLaBryn]

@@rachelcookie321 She did, but beyond that, she talked about that research that demonstrated how an avalanche could occur on such a low slope under the right conditions in quite a bit of detail

[@erinpeterson3202]

her video is phenomenal. highly recommend!!

[@maenad1231]

What’s really sad is how many people disrespected Anastasia’s death and took advantage of people’s hope by pretending to be her

[@captainclarky5352]

People disrespect the young women of Russia by focusing on Princess Anastasia's death - which, however tragic or mysterious, was merely the death of one person - and ignoring how many young girls just like Anastasia were starved, murdered, r*ped, or falsely imprisoned under Tsar Nicholas II

[@robbyjulian311]

@@captainclarky5352 people die everyday, it's natural to focus on the well known/influential figure

[@walterappling6230]

@@captainclarky5352 Well, how many young women were murdered by the Tsar’s police? And how many were murdered by the Bolsheviks?

[@angeldude101]

1 is a tragedy; 1 million is a statistic. This is the sad way the brain tends to work.

[@khills]

It’s truly astonishing how many faux Anastasia’s there where. PBS has a fantastic website listing them all (as well as all the legitimate descendants and their particular political …issues.)

[@birdie8844]

Two of these I had read in a historical time traveling fantasy series where famous children who went missing in their time were pulled out by scheming time travelers just before they disappeared and were turned into babies to be adopted for the future, but something went wrong and they were all returned when they were 12 to their correct times. The Romanov missing kids were in it and there was one that was connected to the Arctic ships too

[@spacewolfcub]

Sounds potentially very interesting… Do you remember the series title or author? One of the book titles?

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

In an alternative timeline the British government didn't cancel King George's offer of political asylum for the Romanov family and they actually survived.

[@birdie8844]

The missing by Margaret Peterson haddix i think

[@lesil1000]

For the first one, they may have experienced severe hypothermia in which they were so cold they became confused and disoriented and they feel like they’re burning up so they take off their clothes. It‘s called “paradoxical undressing.”

[@magnarcreed3801]

Sure except… these were experts. Not newbies. Some of which had already been in an avalanche.

[@hectormontes7056]

I still think Lemmino’s explanation for Dyatlov’s Pass is the most plausible theory for what happened. Explains almost everything without leaving any holes.

[@adityakhanna113]

For what?

[@TheEnabledDisabled]

Agree,

[@michaelnello9459]

@@adityakhanna113 Dyatlov Pass. The first story in the video about the avalanche.

[@captaintryhard5891]

Yeeess. His vids are so good.

[@rsx708]

Lemmino would disagree. A later clarification he made on that video: “Regardless, I no longer believe it is what drove them out of the tent. The stove theory does not sound nearly as plausible as I once thought it did.” As level headed as his video is, he no longer supports its conclusion.

[@Gigiravioli64]

AskAMortician has a great video on The Dyatlov Pass incident.

[@tessiepinkman]

This was insanely interesting! I'd love a part 2, if that's not too much to ask.

[@spazzyshortgirl23]

Very cold cases indeed! Snow avalanches, Arctic expeditions, and Russian winter cold even!

[@jfrader]

Great ep. It’s stuff like this that is so interesting and makes this a favorite channel

[@moseszero3281]

For the first one you missed the effect of severe hypothermia where people begin to feel hot and undress. The avalanche could have caused them to flee their tents but the hypo could have caused them to strip.

[@evilsharkey8954]

And animal scavengers eating the soft, easy to get bits of their bodies.

[@birdstrum1555]

It's incredible that physics from cgi simulations have been scientifically significant 😯

[@glenngriffon8032]

It just goes to show that being a stickler for details is not always bad. I'm sure someone in the animation dept. for Frozen probably thought that such attention to the details of snowflakes was a waste of time and resources. You never know who history will prove wrong.

[@potato-ld1uj]

Right, I think the black whole in interstellar will always take the cake, but that's really cool to hear it from other movies as well.

[@SaltpeterTaffy]

Incredible indeed. I'd like to know that those simulations are accurate and not merely artistic.

[@user-il9ij5wx3n]

You might enjoy that gaming graphics cards are one of the reasons we have such good AI today. They're engineered to have incredible computing power, so they made it possible to run the ressource intensive code of AI

[@Charliefarley170287]

“Gossipy scientists” really made me laugh! 😂

[@Siansonea]

The skull analysis of the Romanov victims seems pretty conclusive to me. Maria was the one buried with Alexei.

[@EfHaichDee]

Why is the skull analysis more conclusive than using analysis of physical features to determine the age of the remains?

[@Siansonea]

@@EfHaichDee Because Maria and Anastasia had very different facial structure, which is pretty obvious to see when looking at the skulls compared to photos of the two women. They were close in age, but not in appearance.

[@EfHaichDee]

@@Siansonea Yeah but how can you tell which is which? Also, they don't look that different to me. Could almost be twins really

[@Siansonea]

@@EfHaichDee I think you have to have a highly attuned sense of facial differences. To me, they don't look at all alike, they barely look related to me. All four of the sisters look dramatically different to me. Tatiana and Alexei have the most resemblance of the kids, I feel.

[@zedantXiang]

@@Siansonea Skull dont get you people face that accurately..

[@Jessicahasopinions]

Yeah I'd love to see more of these too! These are all so interesting.

[@spacecatfelix9032]

SciShow you really should make some more like this. It was excellent

[@EmilyJelassi]

Very interesting video.. would love to see a part 2 of this 😊❤

[@gaijininja]

The problem with the Dylatov Pass hypothesis is that there was no evidence of an avalanche. The only damage to the tent was the cut they had made in it. (Old school tent had a button entrance. In an emergency it was quicker to cut the side, which could be repaired later.) One other hypothesis was that an extreme down draft made a sound like an avalanche, which made them run to avoid it. The crush injuries were only on those who were later found in a gully, and likely were caused by them falling through a snow cover. The missing tongue can be easily explained away by predation. The downdraft was partly proven by a similar incident in the US, where one person survived, and was able to describe what happened.

[@ragnkja]

@Patti DePra Because the tongue and eyes are generally the easiest bits to get to, as they don’t require the scavenger to tear through skin.

[@EricPalmer_DaddyOh]

Do more of these types of videos. Fascinating.

[@Daisies816]

This was great! I'd love to see more of these

[@luauOW]

Sheeeeeeh taking a Linode sponsorship. Linode is pretty cool. Have used them before and they were great.

[@teddy_miljard]

Great video, thanks for sharing it! 🙏

[@Articulate99]

Always interesting, thanks.

[@jmfoerst]

If you like this video check out AskAMoritcian’s videos on like 1/2 of them

[@IAmWBeard]

Diatlov pass, 1 or 2 off them worked in a facility that had nuclear stuff. The crushed bones were from a dozen feet of snow that fell on them and lay there for 2 or 3 months. As to why they ran out of the tent, hard to say

[@NB79032]

Please do another one! I love videos like these!

[@lessonsin30s]

Wow! I'm waiting for part 2.

[@brandonlrushman2870]

Extremely fascinating.

[@tirthankarmishra1420]

I'm just amazed about how useful science truly is in every way possible

[@elizabethf5819]

Damn. The transition from content to advertisement was SEAMLESS. I almost didn't realize you were trying to sell me something.

[@DennisRash]

Thanks for the video!

[@shieh.4743]

Loved the gossipy twist at the end. ❤

[@alwaysasn]

This was an amazing episode

[@brastic.6375]

What I think about Napoleon thing is that He once consumed poison (because he lost) but it turned out it was expired and he had stomach ache Then he was exiled again and there I guess the cancer grew and he died

[@addo2419]

Very interesting, thank you!

[@jt4513]

Love this video !

[@sweetwetsugarmess]

Me hovering over scientists as a ghost: “STOP READING MY STUFF, NERDS!”

[@tiffanym1108]

The romonovs always intriqued me. I was disappointed Anastastia wasn't alive

[@bbbenj]

Thanks for these clarifications 👍

[@daemonthorn5888]

The radiation could be explained by the fact that some of those did work at nuclear facilities as part of their studies. I read that it makes perfect sense for those students to have some small amounts of contamination on their clothing.

[@madotsuki_mk1]

One of them was even present during a major radioactive contamination incident - the 1957 Kyshtym disaster, third worst after Chernobyl and Fukushima.

[@rolfs2165]

IIRC, the hiker who was missing their tongue and eyes had fallen head-first into a small stream and drowned, so it's likely that fish and other animals had a snack.

[@IvanDmitriev1]

I don't remember the investigation book in its entirety (it's 800 pages long), but what I can say is - most of the hikers worked with radioactive materials. The significance of it was which isotopes were found and in which quantity. This was not a natural event, but a honeypot operation (by KGB, and Dyatlov, as an officer of the KGB) which turned into an assassination( by the CIA with an unknown number of Russophone operatives). Read Alexei Rakitin's book while perusing the reference materials and the CIA archives website - it's all there.

[@solar0wind]

@@madotsuki_mk1 Isn't Kyshtym worse than Fukushima? In Fukushima almost everyone who died died because of the evacuation, not the incident itself. Like ICU patients being unplugged to be transferred to another hospital. They would've had a better chance of surviving if they had stayed at the hospital, I guess. In Kyshtym it's unclear how many people died, but to make matters worse the nuclear weapons factory put their waste into the river, even before the explosion. I think researchers estimate that at least 40 people died from the impact of the incident directly.

[@thenewgeneration2378]

" just burn them"... or accidentally delete them. It seems you can never get those back either 😂

[@victoriabarclay3556]

Really interesting episode!

[@thunderring3932]

i like the theory that lemmino provided. as for the radioactivity apparently one of the hikers worked with radioactive material.

[@conlon4332]

10:35 Oh, I really, really do. How do I make sure gossipy scientists read my letters in a couple hundred years? Haha!

[@tabby73]

I wish Jack the Ripper's victims would offer a scrap of dna so that that mystery could finally be solved! Thanks for this very interesting video! 👍

[@westzed23]

There was DNA found on a scarf of the last victim. The findings from studies on this were published in 2014, naming Aaron Kosminski as Jack the Ripper. However, scientists are not totally accepting this discovery. Some of the methods used in extracting the DNA and discoveries made have not fully been disclosed. Forensic experts have criticized the conclusions. So we still don't definitively know who Jack the Ripper was.

[@happyfacefries]

most, if not all, didn't have children. it has also been too long and there's too much contamination

[@happyfacefries]

@@westzed23 i don't think that test is good enough to confirm anyone, but it has been my long time theory that at least 3 of them were committed by Kosminski.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

@@westzed23 We don't even know if Jack the Ripper was actually one killer or if most of these killings were unrelated/copycats. There's a theory that the letters "Jack" wrote weren't even from him, but from a reporter who just wanted a story.

[@westzed23]

@@MyRegardsToTheDodo there is only so much data that can actually be used. Was it more than one person. Were other murders committed besides the five. A Great Puzzle waiting to be solved. The DNA testing done on the found scarf, does not definitely solve who Jack the Ripper was. Perhaps a better DNA sample or some type of evidence that we can't even test now with today's science. But we keep looking.

[@Andrei-pt3nq]

My grandpa knew these guys personally and was the member of the same hiking and tourism club

[@chelseasmith6631]

Was it just me who realized that number 3 was the inspiration for Marvel hero Black Widow’s name (think about it “Anastasia Romanov” = “Natasha Romanoff”

[@terryenby2304]

Simon and Katie need to see this from Decoding The Unknown!! Especially number 1.

[@angelitabecerra]

That's exactly what I was thinking

[@danilincks5809]

Make more of these!!!

[@hannahdesimone3099]

The mountain was actually found to be surrounded by infrasound waves (sound waves with frequencies below the lower limit of human audibility) which are known to cause panic and hysteria in people. Maybe that explains the missing eyes/tongues. Maybe they freaked tf out and went crazy. Lol

[@michelamonaco5997]

Super interesting!☺️

[@melody3741]

The dyatlov pass thing always blew my mind - like, entropy will make the snow want ti level itsef so of course after an avalance it would be more flatter.

[@virginiasoskin9082]

All Romanov family members are now accounted for and interred in the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg, Russia. They are interred in a small room to the right of the main church doors. You can take photos of the room at its open door but cannot enter the room. They join many other tsars and tsarinas also buried in this cathedral. It is very interesting to visit.

[@gamechep]

8:40 Holy crap, the same technique is used in the game Apollo Justice to reveal a hidden painting underneath a painting. There was a letter too, I think. Seeing that irl is mind blowing!

[@IshuBansal9]

Me: burning my letter to save it from future scientists. Future Scientists: "I just discovered how to reverse entropy"

[@alexreid1173]

Tbh I don’t give a damn about what scientists find out about me in 200 years. Go wild.

[@OswinOsgood]

Still not convinced about the dyatlov pass but great theory though

[@Zeverinsen]

I also guessed the same about the avalanche, because anything else wouldn't have made sense! But I was more surprised that it wasn't the immediate conclusion in the first place.

[@queenlucy11]

The documentary of Anastasia that came out in 1997 on Disney does a good job of explaining that story. 🤣

[@jakebeach8308]

For the Dyatlov incident, two of the hikers also worked with radioactive material for an occupation, and those two had the highest levels of radioactivity on their clothing. Lemmino has a video explaining this really well from years ago that all but removed any real mystery from the case for me. The only detail he wasn't sure on was the avalanche.

[@kaitlynoddie9649]

also have to add that the missing body parts in the dyatlov hikers were from scavengers. squishy stuff like tongues and eyeballs are usually the first to go

[@ebelskivers123]

SciShow getting in that True Crime gig 💅

[@Lizablue0608]

Love it whenever science wins..👏🏼👏🏼 🔬🧬

[@jillawesome1]

All of them are super neat, especially as a scientist, but the one that I just can't understand is the first one. Dyatlov Pass is an insane story and there's just so much more to it than an avalanche and lanterns.

[@brittanyblakeley2174]

I had no idea the dyatlov pass incident had an explanation!!! I've only heard of it in cold case files

[@philippagranlund3813]

Lovely video! Slendid work, you've earnt a subscription from me.

[@orsettomorbido]

So cool!

[@rhouser1280]

200 yrs from now, scientists are going to uncover someone’s Snapchats that they thought no one would see!

[@supremereader7614]

fantastic episode - as usual. But how do we know future scientists won't read the letters we burn...?

[@kashiBlogger]

Nice video 👌

[@ChinLee3]

Mind blown 🤯

[@Cecilia-zm4dj]

I'm sure it's a great idea to watch this at midnight 👍🏻

[@marquise139]

AHS plug at 4:55. Anastasia was a witch who cast a spell, to get away lol