10daysofscience

By Heath Raftery

You are currently participating in a mighty event.

When it is over the world will have moved 2,000 kilometres through the solar system. Mankind will have expended around 30 million megajoules just staying alive and added about four billion grams of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in the process. Approximately 14 hectares of forest will have been cut down and more than 100 people will have died.

The Earth will be hit by lightning 6,000 times and there’s not a thing you can do to stop it.

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By Heath Raftery

At a little after midday today, humankind will experience a remarkable moment as clocks tick over to show 12:34:56, 7/8/9.

If you want to catch it, keep your eyes glued clockwards today. It’s a performance that won’t happen again for another 100 years! If you can’t wait that long (most of us can’t, some of us can) it’s only another 80 years until today’s alignment is spectacularly surpassed, when all 10 digits will align in perfect order: 01:23:45, 6/7/89.

(Press play for your sophisticated soundtrack to this momentous day below…)

But how did we arrive at this extraordinary moment? With a great deal of rigmarole, as it turns out … Continue Reading »