Scientists Offer Cash, Possible Immortality

July 6, 2001 7:06 PM

Scientists Offer Cash, Possible Immortality The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists is conducting a contest for the best "Plutonium Memorial" design. Are you ready to think out of the box? Make sure to incorporate classic design elements, as the contents will have a half-life of 24,000 years. It would be a shame to have our distant descendants mock our architecture. P.S. I encourage residents of the Denver metropolitan area to enter the contest.
posted by JDC8 (4 comments total)

Forgot to mention that I found the link at Marketplace.org.
posted by JDC8 at 7:15 PM on July 6, 2001

At first blush, the idea of designing a "Plutonium Memorial" that could safely store large quantities of the stuff for thousands of years might seem overwhelming. After all, isn't plutonium "the most dangerous substance known to man"? Well, not exactly. In fact, there are several substances that arguably pose a much greater risk to human health--for example, cyanide, mercury, cesium, and strontium. Well, la-dee-dah then. Let's smear it all over our hamburgers.
posted by rschram at 7:19 PM on July 6, 2001

I always wanted to be a nuclear priest, myself. "Away! Away from the icons or God shall smite thee and thy body shall waste away!"

Lead cassocks, though.
posted by dhartung at 8:41 PM on July 6, 2001

Let's design it in the form of a giant swimming pool. That way, we get the benefit of storage and chlorine for our own gene pool at the same time.

Either that, or we could create it in the form of a giant communal ketchup bottle, so that certain folk smear it on their hamburgers...
posted by SpecialK at 10:03 PM on July 6, 2001