Peter Becker, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in 亚洲AV鈥檚 College of Science, talks with Mason President Gregory Washington about how a predicted major increase in solar storm activity could be a prelude to an 鈥渋nternet apocalypse.鈥
Can we prepare? What could be the consequences? What are the economic implications? A $14 million federal study Becker is leading with the Navy could provide better predictive capabilities and help us better understand exactly what鈥檚 at stake.聽
聽 聽A very large event could take the internet out for as long as a month, and there鈥檚 additional damage to the power grid, too. So if you lose the internet, the economic damage in the U.S. alone is considered to be on the order of about $10 billion per day. And so if that escalates, you pretty rapidly run into an economic disruption that鈥檚 larger than COVID, let鈥檚 say, as an example."
Access to Excellence Podcast Episodes
- August 6, 2024
- July 5, 2024
- April 22, 2024
- March 25, 2024
- February 16, 2024