Seeds & Hammers

Last week's nonsense hyperventilation "Volunteer needed to land on asteroid and change its course before we all go the way of the dinosaurs, only worse," alarmed me only to this extent. It's another example of how technology, and a 24/7 news cycle, have turned the world into a bunch of kids with Christmas present microscopes. Every wiggly microbe, seen for the first time, is elevated to a thing of catastrophic importance. Especially if there's research money involved, and a politician to dispense it.