The end of the World isn't nigh. Well, probably...!

BBC Radio 4's Material World have just broadcast another fascinating programme, this time with the whole 30 minutes dedicated to the end of the World, which some say is due to happen on 21st December 2012.

You can listen to the broadcast here if you missed it.

Besides being an interesting subject, it was nice to hear Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell on the programme, somebody I remember meeting on an Open University Summer School some 20 years ago.

Although she is most famous for discovering Pulsars, I particularly remember our discussion at that summer school drifting onto the railway line that runs from Fareham to Southampton. I was astounded to discover that when I was at school, still in short trousers probably, some of the trains that were trundling along the railway line under the bridge that I had to cross to get to school would have been carrying Dame Jocelyn to & from Southampton, where she was working at the time, in Southampton University.

So the main thing I learned at that summer school is that we live in a very big universe and an incredibly small world...

But I have digressed, again...!

Returning to the subject of the end of the World, the conclusion I think is that there is nothing much to worry about, but we never quite know what the future might have in store for us. Realistically, it is the man made threats such as "Global warming", Pollution and Nuclear Weapons that are probably the greatest risks to the World at the moment.

So just in case the Soothsayers really do know something that the Scientists don't, I'm going to shift my next Dental appointment back to the 22nd December and I have resolved to do all of my Christmas shopping at the very last minute this year...!