Armageddon science : the science of mass destruction /

The threats of mass destruction are many. Nuclear holocaust, global warming, killer viruses, rogue nanobots, terrorists with poison gases, and meteors from outer space colliding with Earth are just a few of the dangers to human life discussed by physicist Brian Clegg in his overview of the morbid subject. From looking at the book's publicity, one might expect Clegg to foretell looming human extinction, but he surprises readers with calm examinations of each threat and even offers welcomed reassurances that destruction is not imminent. But global warming is real, the information infrastructure may collapse, and natural resources are becoming scarce. Social, economic, and technical changes will be necessary to preserve civilization as we know it. Even then, the meteors may kill us. Easy to read and hard to set aside, Clegg's new book is meant to be a balanced assessment of our chances to survive as species.--Roche, Rick Copyright 2010 Booklist

Clegg (Before the Big Bang) explores how runaway science and other disasters might destroy humanity. He begins with the much discussed but highly speculative concerns over the operation of CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The collider is designed to recreate energies equal to those existing at the time of the big bang, which some theorists say might create a chain reaction that would dissolve the world and even the universe. Discounting the danger as hypothetical in the extreme, Clegg moves on to other possible doomsday scenarios. The short list includes nuclear bombs and nuclear power, climate change, biohazards, nanobots, the threat of transforming humans into enhanced Homo cyberneticus, and the more credible threat of a total "information breakdown." In each case he expertly describes the science and evaluates the seriousness of the threat. Clegg is an optimist and never a fearmonger. Even his discussion of climate change, a subject he admits is "depressing," ends with the options available to avoid catastrophe. Clegg ends with a call for better science education so that "the voting public" can "control science wisely." He also passionately argues that the value of science far outweighs the dangers of its misuse or of new technologies. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

The nuts-and-bolts details behind a score of catastrophic scenarios, from nuclear disaster to global warming to worldwide epidemics.Except for complaining that the media and Hollywood invariably get it wrong, British physicist and science writer Clegg (Before the Big Bang: The Prehistory of Our Universe, 2009, etc.) has no ax to grind. He does not aim to save humanity, but he delivers an accurate explanation of whatever might annihilate us, intermixed with castigations where the potential for disaster has been overblown. Readers will find little new information in his capsule histories of atomic weapons, lasers, poison gas, germ warfare, asteroids striking the earth, black holes and cyberterrorism, but Clegg follows each with an intelligent evaluation of their efficiency as agents of mass destruction. Gas, death rays and germs have proven a disappointment, but asteroid strikes turn out to be much harder to fend off than portrayed in several movies. The modern world has grown so dependent on computer networks that their sabotage has become a growth industry that includes terrorists, entrepreneurs of spam and spyware and hobbyists sending out viruses for their own amusement. While a minor industry of experts generate predictions of calamity from human activity, Clegg points out that natural phenomenahurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mass extinctions from asteroid strikeshave so far produced vastly more damage, although he concludes that burning fossil fuels may warm the world enough to prove the experts right.For those curious about how civilization might end, Clegg provides an ingenious, well-executed narrative of the many possibilities.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.