© Keith Vanderlinde/NSF/Antarctic SunIce cores from the Earth's polar regions may contain chemical traces of ancient supernovae.
Japanese scientists have journeyed to Antarctica to recover evidence of alterations to Earth's atmosphere, caused in medieval times by supernovae recorded by ancient scholars - including obscure Irish monasteries where monks later interpreted them signs of the Antichrist. No, this isn't the plot of the next Dan Brown novel (or a Dan Brown fan-fiction written by an X-Files addict): this is real science.
Supernovae release terrific amounts of energy, as in "If one happened too close the planet would be sterilized" truly terror-inducing terrific. Some of this energy is fired off as gamma rays, which can travel thousands of light-years and still pack enough of a punch after to alter the atmosphere - which is exactly what happened in 1006 and again in 1054, when gamma rays blasted the upper atmosphere and created spikes in NO3 levels. There was also quite a lot of visible light, creating a star visible even during the day which was noted by various Chinese, Egyptian and even monastic records.
To access past records of the atmosphere, a team of Japanese scientists carefully extracted 122 meters of ice core from Antarctica. Even better, to locate events on such a stretch of frozen time you use known volcanic atmosphere-altering events as reference points - in other words, these guys use exploding mountains as a ruler.
Comment: The photo and accompanying caption appear in the original article. Note how what appears to be a group of women trying frantically to get somebody's attention (possibly an aid worker handing out food?) is juxtaposed with a caption that expounds the "need to halt the human-caused degradation of Earth's natural environment."
Perhaps an implied message here is that these worthless brown women (probably Muslim, but who cares?) are an excessive burden on the planet's resources and are thus to blame for the degradation of our once pristine playground?
The author pleads that the "taboo" of population control/reduction be broken. Judging by some of the 1,500 comments this article received on the BBC's website, many read the article not with revulsion but unmitigated relief. Perhaps they subconsciously interpreted it as a nod from authority to openly express their natural inclination towards ideas that revolve around removing "useless eaters" for lebensraum.
Regardless of any sanitary spin dressed over population reduction, the brutal reality is that genocide through economic, social and military warfare is already under way.