Okay, so if you're browsing this site then it's a fair bet that you are a Sci-Fi fan... if you are, then it's also a fair bet that you are interested in the real world, real Science, and that's what this page is all about.

Dealing mainly with topics raised in The Heritage Files, and updated on a regular basis, my aim is to bring you the facts behind the science fiction, the truth behind the fantasy. Beware though, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction... the dividing line between fact and fantasy closer than you may think. Here I'll provide you with the facts, it's up to you to use your imagination... and then to decide just exactly what it is that you believe in.

 

The classical "Big Five" mass extinctions are widely agreed upon as some of the most significant: End Ordovician, Late Devonian, End Permian, End Triassic, and End Cretaceous. These and a selection of other extinction events are outlined below

1. 488 million years ago — a series of mass extinctions at the Cambrian-Ordovician transition (the Cambrian-Ordovician extinction events) eliminated many brachiopods and severely reduced the number of trilobite species.
2. 444 million years ago — at the Ordovician-Silurian transition two Ordovician-Silurian extinction events occurred, and together these are ranked by many scientists as the second largest of the five major extinctions in Earth's history in terms of percentage of genera that went extinct.
3. 360 million years ago — near the Devonian-Carboniferous transition (the Late Devonian extinction) a prolonged series of extinctions led to the elimination of about 70% of all species. This was not a sudden event — the period of decline lasted perhaps as long as 20 million years, and there is evidence for a series of extinction pulses within this period.
4. 251 million years ago — at the Permian-Triassic transition Earth's largest extinction, the Permian-Triassic extinction event, killed 53% of marine families, 84% of marine genera, about 96% of all marine species and an estimated 70% of land species (including plants, insects, and vertebrate animals). The "Great Dying" had enormous evolutionary significance: on land it ended the dominance of the mammal-like reptiles and created the opportunity for archosaurs and then dinosaurs to become the dominant land vertebrates; in the seas the percentage of animals that were sessile dropped from 67% to 50%.
5. 200 million years ago — at the Triassic-Jurassic transition (the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event) about 20% of all marine families as well as most non-dinosaurian archosaurs, most therapsids, and the last of the large amphibians were eliminated.
6. 65 million years ago — at the Cretaceous-Paleogene transition (the K/T extinction event) about 50% of all species became extinct. It has great significance for humans because it ended the reign of the dinosaurs and opened the way for mammals to become the dominant land vertebrates; and in the seas it reduced the percentage of sessile animals again, to about 33%
7. Present day — the Holocene extinction event. A 1998 survey by the American Museum of Natural History found that 70% of biologists view the present era as part of a mass extinction event, possibly one of the fastest ever. Some, such as E. O. Wilson of Harvard University, predict that man's destruction of the biosphere could cause the extinction of one-half of all species in the next 100 years. Research and conservation efforts, such as the IUCN's annual "Red List" of threatened species, all point to an ongoing period of enhanced extinction, though some offer much lower rates and hence longer time scales before the onset of catastrophic damage.

The formation of large igneous provinces by flood basalt events could have: produced dust and particulate aerosols which inhibited photosynthesis and thus caused food chains to collapse both on land and at sea; emitted sulfur oxides which were precipitated as acid rain and poisoned many organisms, contributing further to the collapse of food chains; emitted carbon dioxide and thus caused sustained global warming once the dust and particulate aerosols dissipated. Flood basalt events occur as pulses of activity punctuated by dormant periods. As a result they are likely to cause the climate to oscillate between cooling and warming, but with an overall trend towards warming as the carbon dioxide they emit can stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years.
Various scientists have suggested that massive volcanism caused or contributed to the End-Cretaceous, End-Permian, End Triassic and End Jurassic extinctions.

 

The impact of a sufficiently large asteroid or comet could have caused food chains to collapse both on land and at sea by producing dust and particulate aerosols and thus inhibiting photosynthesis. If it hit sulfur-rich rocks, it could also have emitted sulfur oxides which were precipitated as acid rain and poisoned many organisms — contributing further to the collapse of food chains. Some scientists have suggested that impacts could also have caused mega tsunamis and / or global forest fires,

 

A nearby gamma ray burst (less than 6000 light years distance) could sufficiently irradiate the surface of the Earth to kill organisms living there and destroy the ozone layer in the process. From statistical arguments, approximately 1 gamma ray burst would be expected to occur in close proximity to Earth in the last 540 million years. It has been suggested that a supernova or gamma ray burst caused the End-Ordovician extinction.

Petroleum is found in porous rock formations in the upper strata of some areas of the Earth's crust. There is also petroleum in oil sands. Known reserves of petroleum are typically estimated at around 1.2 trillion barrels without oil sands, or 3.74 trillion barrels with oil sands. However, oil production from oil sands is currently severely limited. Consumption is currently around 84 million barrels per day, or 3.6 trillion liters per year. Because of reservoir engineering difficulties, recoverable oil reserves are significantly less than total oil-in-place. At current consumption levels, and assuming that oil will be consumed only from reservoirs, known reserves would be gone in about 32 years, around 2039, potentially leading to a global energy crisis.

As a point of interest, The Heritage Files would like to point out that Iraq has the third largest reserves of conventional oil in the world at 112 gigabarrels. Despite its vast oil reserves and low costs, production has not recovered since the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. Constant looting, insurgent attacks, and sabotage in the oil fields has limited production to around 0.5 gigabarrels per year at best.

In October 2006, Eugene Polzik and his team at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark conducted a teleportation experiment involving a microscopic atomic object containing trillions of atoms. They teleported the information a distance of half a metre. "For the first time, it involves teleportation between light and matter, two different objects."

In June 2007, Ashton Bradley's team at the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Quantum Atom Optics in Brisbane, Australia, proposed a technique that avoids quantum entanglement entirely. "We're talking about a beam of about 5000 particles disappearing from one place and appearing somewhere else", says Bradley. "We feel that our scheme is closer in spirit to the original fictional concept", he adds. While the technique can also transmit quantum information in the beam, the technique itself does not rely on the quantum properties of particles, so the team have dubbed the new method "classical teleportation". John Close, an expert on atomic laser physics at the Australian National University in Canberra, is impressed. "Using entangled atomic states looks pretty tough in comparison." Close wants to set up an experiment to test the system, but estimates it will take at least four years.

Source: Wikipedia

Well, after reading that you can't really say that it is impossible can you?

I guess that like most things, only time will tell.