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Welcome to Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American for the seven days starting June 27th.

I'm Steve Murseky.

This week on the podcast, journalist Alan Wiseman conducts a gigantic thought experiment.

What would the earth be like if human beings suddenly disappeared?

A week from now, a year from now, a century from now, and thousands of years down the road.

Plus, we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news.

First up, Alan Wiseman, he's a veteran journalist and a senior producer at Homeland's Productions.

That's a journalism collective that produces independent public radio documentaries.

He's a professor of journalism at the University of Arizona and the author of a new book about this idea of the events that would unfold if humanity just vanished.

I called him at his office in Tucson.

Alan, good to talk to you today.

It's my pleasure.

Your book is called The World Without Us.

It's a fairly self-explanatory title, but why don't you give us the nickel tour of the

idea of this book?

Well, it started about the summer of 2003.

I got a call from an editor at Discover Magazine who asked me to do a piece for the magazine

...