Poor Ann Hodges was met by some 200 reporters outside her house following her ordeal, while the dinosaur-killing Chicxulub asteroid makes tabloid headlines on a monthly basis, despite having impacted some 66 million years ago. Perhaps it is a morbid curiosity innate to the human condition, but the prospect of death and destruction raining down from the heavens has long fascinated us. It was thus that the unfortunate Ann Elizabeth Fowler Hodges entered the annals of history as the first individual known with certainty to have not only been struck by a meteorite but also to have lived, if severely bruised, to tell the tale. Breaking into fragments, one grapefruit-sized part of the rock slams messily through the roof of a farmhouse, ricochets off a large console radio and slams into the side of a young woman as she takes a nap on her couch. on 30 November 1954 when a lazy Alabama afternoon is suddenly arrested by a fireball noisily rending the air, burning so bright it’s visible from two neighbouring states as it streaks through the sky above Sylacauga. But what if one struck the Earth or even, perhaps, a human being? Ian Randall discovers whether there is legitimate cause for concern or if such a scenario is mere science fiction (Courtesy: ESO/M Kornmesser) Webinars Tune into online presentations that allow expert speakers to explain novel tools and applicationsīorn at the dawn of time, primordial black holes may lurk throughout the universe – should they exist.Video Watch our specially filmed videos to get a different slant on the latest science.Podcasts Our regular conversations with inspiring figures from the scientific community.Audio and video Explore the sights and sounds of the scientific world.Supercool physics Experiments that probe the exotic behaviour of matter at ultralow temperatures depend on the latest cryogenics technology. ![]()
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