Shake your windows and rattle your walls

Wilk brings up something that I am sure must always be somewhere in the back of the minds of modern humans, the possibility that our world could end in an instant. 6,000 brilliant flashes and then nothingness. Or would it be nothingness?

I wonder what the true science on the subject is. What I would like to ask military scientists, who I am certain must have studied the matter, is what exactly are the chances of any humans surviving a catastrophic nuclear exchange? Is it that nuclear winter sweeps the globe and destroys all plant and animal life? Or do some things survive; the lucky, or depending on one's view the unlucky.

I often think about the society which would replace us. Would they take history lessons and laugh at our foibles in the same way that we laugh at the Classical civilizations which were victims of their own ignorance? Would they be sickened by the wealth and technology we had at our disposal and our lack of a social conscience to wield it properly? Would they study the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy in the same way that we do the Gracchi brothers?

If anyone has any good information on the science of what a post-nuclear world would look like, if the survival of any humans would be at all possible, please post the info or a link to it.