Dr. David Darling, British astronomer and science writer, returns to Art Bell after eleven years for a conversation spanning asteroid defense, extraterrestrial life, and consciousness. Art Bell poses a vivid scenario: a six-mile asteroid with five years' warning. Darling's answer is sobering. Nuclear weapons might produce a shotgun blast of fragments still on course, and deflection requires decades of lead time. Even confirming the object would strike Earth could take a year of orbital… Full show notes & guests: https://artbellarchive.org/episode/august-31-2015-asteroids-and-the-cosmos-dr-david-darling