1 Terry: So if we use the particle accelerator with our canister of fissile material...
2 Bonnie: We can almost certainly do something so dangerous that it will risk destroying the entire universe.
3 Terry: Excellent!
4 Jane Goodall: And when I was younger people used to ask me why I wanted to get into science...

As I write this, I'm two episodes into watching the historical miniseries Chernobyl, about the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster.

I remember when it happened. It was extremely scary, even though I lived on the far side of the world and wasn't immediately affected by any of the released radiation. I remember the news reports each night saying how much the radioactive cloud was spreading, and I remember wondering if Europe would be rendered uninhabitable, turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Geez. The Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Chernobyl. AIDS. Acid rain. The ozone hole. Growing up in the 1980s was a scary, scary, scary time.

Although I'm not sure it holds a candle to the current generation of kids, growing up with the spectre of global warming and climate change.