Ali Hassan al-Majid

Ferrofluid on glass, with a neodymium magnet underneath

Coat of arms of the Indies Company, with the reclining figure representing the Mississippi River taken from Law's Compagnie d'Occident , and the motto Florebo quocumque ferar taken from Louis XIV's East India Company

Ali Hassan al-Majid

"Chemical Ali" ordered nerve-agent strikes on Kurdish villages, killing up to 100,000 people, then calmly signed the paperwork annexing Kuwait. He was hanged in 2010, convicted four times over.

Ferrofluid

Ferrofluid — iron nanoparticles suspended in oil — erupts into precise black spikes the instant a magnet approaches, each spike a tiny compass needle fighting surface tension. Remove the magnet and the spikes vanish instantly.

Hetty Green

Worth $100 million in 1900, Hetty Green wore the same black dress until it rotted and allegedly refused a surgeon's fee for her son Ned's infected leg — he lost the limb. She ate cold oatmeal to avoid heating it.

Bosch (company)

Robert Bosch died in 1942 leaving 94% of his company to a charitable foundation, structuring the gift so that no heir, buyer, or market could ever dissolve what he built. The foundation still holds it today.

Dynamite

Alfred Nobel read his own obituary—'merchant of death'—while still alive, then spent his fortune engineering the Peace Prize to rewrite his legacy. The man who perfected mass killing also endowed its antidote.

Swordfish

The swordfish heats its own eyes and brain to 28°C above the surrounding ocean, running a biological furnace to keep vision razor-sharp at depth and speed. It is a warm-eyed predator in a cold, dark sea.

George T. Sakato

George Sakato's friend Saburo Tanamachi was shot dead in front of him in France, 1944. Sakato grabbed a rifle and charged an entrenched German platoon alone, killing or capturing 34 men. His Medal of Honor arrived in 2000.

John Law's Company

John Law — a Scottish gambler who killed a man in a duel — convinced France to replace gold with paper backed by Louisiana swampland. Within two years, the word 'millionaire' was coined, then the crash.

Operation Gibraltar

In 1965 Pakistan infiltrated 30,000 fighters into Kashmir under Operation Gibraltar, dressed as locals. The Kashmiris, meant to rise in welcome, reported the strangers to Indian authorities instead. The operation collapsed in weeks.