[Taking a sip of tea...sitting up pretty and straight] So,  supposedly the earth’s magnetic field is going to reverse itself.  And before it does that, the magnetic field would disappear all together for a little while.

Oh, said you, where did you get such authoritative news?

From the Economist and New York Times, of course.  Astronomy Today gives a little too much information you see.

So, anyway I gathered from the said authoritative science articles that this will likely not occur in our lifetime, unless you were a fossil, in which case you wouldn’t have to worry about it unless you were a fossil bearing ferrous elements.  Then again, we don’t know how much said will actually come to pass as described.  Real scientists don’t commit to their hypotheses.  They don’t kneel down with one knee holding a diamond ring.  No, they just flirt and fancily wave their hands in front of the blackboard with equations, saying “if this happens, then it’s probably… and the best guess is…”, and make you wait by the phone and never call.

Check out the New York Times article here.

Check out the Economist.com article here.