|
Science Friday > Archives > 2003 > April
> April 25, 2003:
Hour Two: The End
of the World
This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends
/ This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.
From The Hollow Men, T. S. Eliot, 1925.
Have you ever thought about how life on earth, or even the earth
itself, might end? Will our planet's slow evolution reverse, bringing
an end to the age of animals and the oceans? Will some catastrophic
event quickly snuff out life on the planet? Could humans themselves
orchestrate the end?
In this hour, we'll talk with scientists, including Britain's Astronomer
Royal, about the end of the world as they see it -- from astronomical
and geological processes, to more immediate environmental concerns
here at home. Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255,
and share your opinions online in our Listeners' Lounge (registration required).
Guests:
Sir Martin Rees
Author, "Our
Final Hour, A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental
Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in this Century--On Earth and
Beyond" (Basic Books, 2003)
U.K.'s Astronomer Royal
Royal Society Research Professor
Fellow, King's College
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Donald Brownlee
Co-author, "The
Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology
Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World" (Times Books, 2003)
Professor, Astronomy
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Peter Ward
Co-author, "The
Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology
Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World" (Times Books, 2003)
Professor, Geological
Sciences
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Discover:
20 Ways the World Could End
CNN
- Physicists describe grim end of the world - Jan. 15, 1997
The
Observer | International | Earth 'will expire by 2050'
TIME.com
- End of the Universe
'The
end of the world' has already begun, UW scientists say
ABCNEWS.com
: When Will the World End? New Theory Emerges
Apocalypse
Then
CNN.com:
No doomsday in store when planets align Friday - May 1, 2000
Nuclear
clock: Overview
This segment produced by Karin
Vergoth and Clementine Wallace
|