This summer, the European Space Agency published data that suggested that the Earth's magnetic field could flip -- as in, the magnetic north pole becomes the magnetic south pole -- in 'a few thousand years.' At the time, I figured there was no rush to write it up -- after all, we might not even be living on Earth in a few thousand years. Now, however, new research published this week shows that the magnetic field might flip within our lifetime -- so it's probably something that we ought to talk about.