Doomsday Fun and Games

Published
by
Clifford
on September 24, 2009
in Los Angeles, astronomy, black holes, planets, science, science education, science fiction, science in the media and television
.

the_universeI’ve been wondering why over the last day or two I’ve been getting email about various apocalyptic scenarios. I’ve now figured out why, I think. On Tuesday, several scientists, myself included, played with the idea of how to destroy the earth! Well, it was on the History Channel in an episode of the show the Universe, (it was recorded back in June and July) entitled “Ten Ways to Destroy the Earth”. Of course, these are not scenarios we envision happening any time soon, but rather an excuse to talk about various kinds of science (from spontaneous symmetry breaking and the early universe, through planetary science, solar physics, and of course black holes and more). We list various favourite ways that were chosen to be discussed, and each physicist (although they called me an astrophysicist) picks a favourite. Fun stuff.

I chose putting a huge amount of antimatter at the core of the earth and letting it annihilate with matter to create a huge explosion…. not sure why that was my favourite at the time (it was tough to choose - I was conflicted with the choice among various spectacular destruction scenarios, and the horror of actually discussing and thinking about destroying our beautiful planet!)

There were ten scenarios in all, several of which (while speculative, outlandish, yes - maybe a bit silly to some - but fun and instructive) are quite spectacular indeed, so if interested, I recommend having a look at the show as it reruns over the course of the week and beyond!

-cvj

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