an asteroid between one and three kilometers wide had slammed into the ground at fifteen klicks per second.

Such assertions are motivated by the desire to leave the independent-particle model in place as the central paradigm in nuclear theory, but they inadvertently push theoretical nuclear physics in the direction of counting angels on pinheads: “Sure they’re there! It’s just that there aren’t any observable implications of their celestial presence!”

[W]ounds immedicable / Ranckle, and feſter, and gangrene, / To black mortification.

If you walk away from this offer you will live to regret it.