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Home > Important, Not Important > #66: So We Can’t Just Blow Up Asteroids, Then?
Podcast: Important, Not Important
Episode:

#66: So We Can’t Just Blow Up Asteroids, Then?
Category: Science & Medicine
Duration: 01:04:26
Publish Date: 2019-05-14 02:00:00
Description: In Episode 66, Quinn & Brian discuss: Why, apparently, we can't -- and further -- shouldn’t just blow up asteroids. Our guest is Professor K.T. Ramesh, who is a professor of mechanical engineering at John Hopkins, founding director of the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute (HEMI), and our new hero. You can think of HEMI as a real-life Avengers (no, we’re not just stuck on Endgame), except every member is like Bruce Banner without all the Hulk-iness or Tony Stark if he was never kidnapped by terrorists. Every day, they’re working to protect people, structures, and the planet, exploring a number of topics that are both critically important and impenetrably complicated.  One of their newest studies reveals that Hollywood and Atari may, in fact, have been incorrect when they repeatedly suggested that one viable way to defend the planet from an incoming asteroid would be blowing it up. We don’t know about you, but we certainly feel lied to – so it’s refreshing to have this conversation with Professor Ramesh to set the record straight. Want to send us feedback? Tweet us, email us, or leave us a voice message! Trump’s Book Club: These Truths by Jill Lepore: https://www.amazon.com/registry/wishlist/3R5XF4WMZE0TV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_ep_ws_2Gr8Ab6RS5WF3\ Links: Learn more about Professor Ramesh & HEMI: https://hemi.jhu.edu/the-hemi-team/leadership/k-t-ramesh/ “If We Blow Up an Asteroid, It Might Put Itself Back Together”: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/science/asteroids-nuclear-weapons.html Twitter: https://twitter.com/jhu_hemi Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HopkinsExtreme/ Listen to Radiolab’s Dinopocalypse ep: https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/dinopocalypse Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) Mission: https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense/dart Watch Brian’s morning show on IGS: https://www.instagram.com/importantnotimportant Connect with us: Subscribe to our newsletter at ImportantNotImportant.com! Check out our Morning Show and other daily bite-size content on Instagram: instagram.com/ImportantNotImportant Follow Quinn: twitter.com/quinnemmett Follow Brian: twitter.com/briancolbertken Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/ImportantNotImp Like and share us on Facebook: facebook.com/ImportantNotImportant Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/important-not-important/message
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