Café Scientifique with Professor Lawrence Rudnick, on "Cosmic Catastrophes: Apocalypse When?" Recorded at the Bryant Lake Bowl on 02-24-12. Here is the description of the talk: "Our existence on Earth is at once robust and fragile. Life manages to survive under a wide range of conditions, but we also live under constant threat from all manner of events in the vast universe. Professor Lawrence Rudnick will talk us through a variety of ways our world could end – from asteroid impacts to rogue black holes – and wax philosophical about whether the universe itself might have prevented us from ever existing. You may lose some sleep after this Cafe -- not from fear but from the amazing perspectives we gain on humanity when we think BIG. Professor Rudnick is an observational astrophysicist from the University of Minnesota, studying both supernova remnants and large-scale structures in the Universe. He uses a wide variety of ground and space-based telescopes in the radio, X-ray, infrared, and optical portions of the spectrum. Professor Rudnick was a founding member of the Minnesota Planetarium Society, which has now merged its operations with the Bell Museum to provide astronomy and space education across Minnesota. He is actively involved in public outreach activities and K-12 science education, and was a consultant and on-screen expert for public TV’s Newton’s Apple for 14 years. Professor Rudnick has been recognized with the Morse-Alumni Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education and the Outstanding Community Service Award at the University of Minnesota."