Episode 31: Let's Torch That Peach! | The Core (2003)
Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash
Photo by Jakob Braun on Unsplash
We have come to a movie that is apparently somewhat infamous in the scientific community for its terrible and ridiculous science: The Core. Patricia joins us once again to discuss how plausible it would be that the Earth’s core would stop spinning, that we could drill down to the core, and that we could restart it with nuclear weapons!
If your guess was, wow, that sounds insanely implausible, ding ding ding, you got it right!
If you thought, huh, that sounds like something that is a very likely problem but also very fixable with nuclear weapons, I am not sure how to help you.
Articles
Articles Written by Scientists Specifically about Why the Science in The Core Is Bad
When Sci-Fi Goes Wrong: Physicist Explains the Non-Science of The Core
Conceptual Astronomy: Science Fact vs. Science Fiction: The Core
Quora article: What are some scientific inaccuracies in The Core?
Earth’s Geology
Earth is not a perfect sphere: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-is-not-round
Inge Lehmann, the geophysicist who discovered that the Earth has an inner AND outer core (yay women in STEM!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inge_Lehmann
Earthquakes and Nuclear Bombs
An awesome website that converts earthquakes of different magnitudes to their energy equivalent in terms of atomic bombs:
Magnetic Fields
Good NASA article about how the Earth's magnetic field ACTUALLY protects us from stuff: https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/news-articles/earths-magnetosphere
Article from NASA on simulations of the Earth without the magnetic field
This incredible Stack Exchange post on what might be required to re-start Mars's core to give it a magnetic field. (Note from Patricia: Don't really know if it's scientifically sound, but it's incredibly entertaining!): https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/100393/how-many-nukes-are-needed-to-restart-mars-core
Stopping the Spread of Info on the Internet
Helpfully skeptical summary of the banning of Winnie the Pooh in Chinese internet spaces: https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/is-winnie-the-pooh-banned-china
China's firewall as written up by the EFF (a non-profit dedicated to “defending civil liberties in the digital world”): https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/chinas-global-reach-surveillance-and-censorship-beyond-great-firewall
Hacking Phones
YE OLDE Esquire article about phone phreaking: https://classic.esquire.com/article/1971/10/1/secrets-of-the-blue-box
Pacemakers
Science Corner
Early report about what would become known a Stuxnet: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2010/07/experts-warn-of-new-windows-shortcut-flaw
Stuxnet on Darknet Diaries: https://darknetdiaries.com/episode/29
Article on the world's largest geode in Spain: https://eos.org/articles/giant-geode-grew-slow-and-steady