"If the moon were to suddenly turn to cheese, the movie pitches would be insufferable. Astronauts would be irritated, grad students would be demoralized and news articles would overflow with terrible puns. The great jaws of the Internet would get hold of the details, churning out doomsday scenarios, memes and conspiracies. And that's even before the moon cheese would start to compress, creating geysers of material and a dangerously unstable lunar landscape."
"In When The Moon Hits Your Eye, voted one of Scientific American's best fiction picks of 2025, author John Scalzi plots out the physical side of this scenario alongside the societal and interpersonal ramifications of such an unexpected (if delicious) transformation. The story follows myriad perspectivesincluding those of scientists, government officials, billionaires with something to prove, online forum commenters, journalists, and many othersas people try to grapple with the moon's abrupt transformation and stubborn insistence on remaining cheesy."
"On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. So the moon is made of cheese. How did you come to write this? I have settled into a really interesting niche with the contemporary science fiction I write, which is take a really absurd idea and then try to apply real life to it."
The sudden conversion of the Moon into cheese would produce immediate cultural reactions including jokes, conspiracies, and viral online content. Physical consequences would include compression of the cheesy material, geysers of ejecta, and a destabilized lunar surface threatening orbital and planetary effects. Scientists, officials, journalists, billionaires, and online communities would respond with competing hypotheses, experiments, and misinformation. A worldwide scramble to understand the phenomenon would illuminate scientific processes, reveal social dynamics, and strain institutional and media responses. The scenario blends planetary science with human behavior, showing how unexpected physical changes can trigger cascading societal and interpersonal ramifications.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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