We're Not Doomed: Why the World Won't End This Month

When Gabrielle Vail tells people she studies ancient Mayan writings known as codices, their first question is nearly always the same: “Is the world really going to end on Dec. 21?” … Believers of the “2012 phenomenon” depict ancient Mayan astronomers as sages privy to knowledge long since lost to modern science. They forecast cataclysmic events like the sun exploding or Earth succumbing to a black hole. Well, not quite, according to Vail, a New College of Florida anthropology professor who has studied Mayan culture for 23 years. In her lecture “The Destruction and Re-Creation of the World in Sacred Mayan Texts” at the South Florida Museum on Wednesday, Vail will address how the doomsday forecast arose.