BY NIALL FIRTH and CLAIRE BATES The London Mail Skyscrapers
crumble to the ground, fiery meteorites smash into Earth and a
Tibetan monk cowers as a massive tidal wave swamps his mountain
retreat. It is a vision of the coming apocalypse thrillingly
captured in the latest Hollywood blockbuster. But fears that the
world is due to end in December 2012 is just a myth fuelled by
internet rumour, according to a leading Nasa scientist. Dr David
Morrison, who runs the space agency’s ‘Ask an Astrobiologist’
service, says he has received more than a thousand emails from
those worried that the world is due to end in 2012. In an
article published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Dr
Morrison has answered the top 20 questions in an attempt to
assuage these fears. According to the theories on the internet,
the calendar used by the ancient civilisation of the Mayans is
due to come to an end in December 2012. Luckily for conspiracy
theorists, this coincides neatly with predictions by an obscure
sci-fi author, who wr