Most of you have not even heard the word geodesy before. In stead of presenting the accurate definition of this Earth science I will introduce the field of geodesy gently to you by guiding you to a broadcast on This Week in Science – the kickass science podcast. Check out the audio from July 10, 2007 where the new size of the Earth is discussed (from around 11:20 – 15:50) and get an entertaining first taste of geodesy

The University of Bonn published the resulting new size of the Earth having used modern geodetic tools. The Earth is just a few milimeter smaller than we thought it was, but the significance of being able to measure the size of the Earth with this accuracy has long reaching consequences for many areas in our society. In the future you'll be able to read about some of it on this site.