Last week, French and Danish scientists announced that they had spotted a peculiar anomaly in the magnetic field whose origins lay in the spiralling columns of liquid metal that flow in the core of the planet. These vortices could be the engines that drive the pole-flipping process.

The origin of the Earth's magnetic field was described by Einstein as one of the three great unsolved puzzles of physics.....

If a flip is due, should we be worried? The magnetic field protects against charged particles of the solar wind. Once the flip is under way, the overall magnetic field drops to a tenth of its pervious strength, while several poles appear all over the Earth. The field eventually returns to its full strength with the poles reversed.

Some links to HAARP, which just might be the USA's way of protecting us with a temporary global electro-magnetic shield...

Interview with expert - by Linda Moulton Howe

More... CNN have an article and multimedia (short doco and interactive mummy unwrapping)