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Happy New Year grad students! Since reading last you’ve successfully entered 2013 and… survived the end of the world?

Well despite it feeling good to survive the end of the world, I’d suggest that we already did that in 2000, so there’s no need to mourn the reality that, in fact, we didn’t survive much of anything. How do I know? Well, you see, I went to Mexico over the break to find out (Gradlife research journalism).

Yes, I was a lucky lady this break and for the first time in my University career, did the painfully privileged and “went away” for break. A friend of mine co-owns a house on the Mayan Riviera, closest to the municipality of Tulum. As if this wasn’t cool enough, I was also there for December 21^st, and being in Mayan territory, I found myself particularly invested in all this end of the world business.

 

Except there wasn’t much business about anything ending in Mexico. As it turns out, the North American (and European?) news media had duped us again! In fact, the ending of the Mayan calendar did not mean for Mexicans or Latina/os the end of anything, but rather a significant mark in a 5,125 year creation cycle – no destruction attached. In many ways, this was like the greatest New Years party in 5,125 years!

As explained in this Nasa video*, if anything, the shift in calendar was more like a car odometer reaching 99,999km, and finally rolling over. This shift back to zero is an extremely significant demonstration of the mathematical advancement of the Mayan populace – neither Greek nor Roman civilizations used the concept of zero. Therefore this calendar business is quite a lot to celebrate.

And so, that explains why we all survived! Still confused? Check out this video:

There wasn’t really going to be an end of the world after all! Sorry if you were banking on the “end of the world” to protect you from thesis-writing. I hope the last couple of weeks have given you ample time to recover from the almost-greatest-excuse-ever for not completing Grad school.

*I apologize for mostly white scientist dudes explaining a Mayan phenomenon

Sources:

TIME: http://world.time.com/2012/12/21/the-world-didnt-end-but-the-u-s-s-arrogant-disregard-for-mexico-should/

NASA: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/14dec_yesterday/

Photos: Trish Starling