This may be a bit heavy for Wednesday afternoon but suck it up. In a rare break from Gadget news. Let's take a look at something a bit more ‘techy’. As Richard Branson plans to explore the depths of the Ocean in his wacky submarine thing. British astrophysicist Martin Rees has just won Templeton Prize for exploring the depths of the cosmos with his superior mind (and probably a few telescopes and things.)
Apparently, Rees has widened the boundaries of understanding about the physical processes that define the cosmos, including speculations on the concept of ‘multiverses’ and infinite universes.
During his career, Rees has made important contributions to support the theories of the Big Bang, the explosive start to the universe 13.7 billion years ago, and of the existence of massive “black holes” in space in which even light can be trapped.
Rees has also hypothesised the end of humanity. In a 2003 book by the astrologist the odds of our present civilisation surviving to the end of the present century are said to be no better than 50/50.
He says there's a whole host of things lining up to take us out including natural events, such as super-eruptions and asteroid impacts, and man-made disasters like engineered viruses, nuclear terrorism and even a take-over by super-intelligent machines.
Hmm which one will it be? My money's on nuclear terrorism at the moment.