The Mass-Extinction Debates: How Science Works in a Crisis

Book Overview

This book is the first to examine the arguments and behavior of the scientists who have been locked in conflict for a decade over two competing hypotheses for the cause of the mass extinction, some 65 million years ago, of most of life on earth, including the dinosaurs. These papers - by historians, sociologists, philosophers, and participating scientists - provide an exceptional opportunity to observe firsthand the workings of science that in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804722862
• ISBN13: 9780804722865
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 388 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Boom Boom, Out Went The Lights

This series of essays, edited by and partially written by William Glen, provide readers interested in the Alvarez theory a snapshot of the debate between uniformitarians and catastrophists, as it stood in 1994. The authors include Digby McLaren, David Raup, and Victor Clube, and obviously includes essays by those either opposed to the concept of impact or by those who thought (or perhaps still think) that the impact at the K-T boundary did in fact take place, but didn't have any bearing on extinction. This reviewer gives it four stars because, despite its quality, it is over ten years old. The debate still simmers, but over the long run, the impact model for mass extinction will become the only game in town. Saying, as some did or still do, that if all the volcanoes on Earth erupted simultaneously, sufficient iridium would have made it into the K-T boundary layer, used to be seen as a viable alternative. As we see, even in 1994, it had already been debunked. This doesn't even consider the fact that, if the Chicxulub impact had no effect on Earth's species, the fact that so many plants and animals went extinct essentially immediately was just a huge coincidence. The alternative denial is to deny that mass extinction even took place. Gradual extinction was still being trumpeted back in 1994 when this book was published. It still can be seen here and there today, but is itself going extinct. One reason this book is such an interesting read -- besides the frank expressions of the underlying assumptions on all sides -- is that it was published in the very year that all waited with breath abated for the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet fragments to impact on Jupiter. I doubt that a book of this kind would have been possible after those impacts, because those scars on the Jovian surface buried most of the opposition to the significance of impact. The various fallback positions of those who denied any role for impact (and in some rare cases, continue to deny it) are seen fully formed even in 1994. The Deccan Traps, a large but otherwise unremarkable volcanic scar on the Earth, as well as other volcanic alibis for mass extinction, were already touted then, and had already been shown as fallacious in some of these essays. It is only natural that impact is now seen as a uniformitarian phenomenon. This was predictable and predicted simply as a consequence to the politics of science. The late Eugene Shoemaker, codiscoverer of the SL-9 comets, is quoted in this book as supporting that idea. While it is ironic that random catastrophes have been co-opted into a uniformitarian framework, some of the thinking behind that co-opting can be seen in the essays by David Raup and others. The supposed periodicity of mass extinctions in the fossil record motivated Raup et al to look for various possible causes for showers of comets, a sort of Gouldian Punctuated Equilibria model based on causes from the skies. Even in 1994, none of those had held up. Since then,

Splendid Overview of Mass Extinction Debates

Geologist and historian of science William Glen has assembled an excellent overview on current research on mass extinctions, noting the anomosity which exists between advocates of comet/asteroid impact induced mass extinctions and their critics. This excellent volume is largely assembled from a history and philosophy of science symposium on mass extinctions held at Northwestern University. Major advocates such as paleontologists David Raup and J. John Sepkoski describe how their research led to their acceptance of the Alvarez team's impact theory as the cause for the end Cretaceous mass extinction, and their eventual discovery of periodicity of mass extinctions seen in the marine fossil record. On the other hand, skeptics such as John C. Briggs and William A. Clemens defend their objections to comet or asteroid impacts as the cause of mass extinctions. There are also insightful articles on the history and sociology of science as these pertain to the mass extinction debates.

Best balanced overview by the leading historian on subject

A reader from Aliso Viejo, CA Best balanced overview by the leading historian on subject Glen has studied the debates for 14 years and thus was able to provide an overview and analyses that only one with his expertise can provide. The acrimony and bitterness between the warring theoretical camps of scientists is wonderfully illumninated. The two major groups of debators believe that either an asteroid or comet on one hand, or massive volcanic eruptions on the other caused the death of the dinosaurs and most of other life on Earth. The story is excitingly told and seems to place the reader at the center of the storm of controversy that has raged for over a decade. Glen's two opening chapters make up a small book in themselves which explain the whole affair. This small book opens the larger anthology which also includes chapters by almost a dozen world-class leaders of various sciences including Stephen J. Gould. It is a wonderful work for both layman and scientist that shows both the science and the life of the scientists who struggle mightily to make their cases in an arena that seems to test both their intellects and emotional integrity. Glen notes that this work contains his larger conclusions briefly presented which he hopes to more fully detail in a future work. This is simply a fascinating, lucid, indispensible read for all interested in the subject--its hard to put down once begun.

Several reviews from leading journals & experts

From Geochemica et Cosmochemica Acta by Christian Koeberl, University of Vienna: "I found the book easy and fascinating to read--it was hard to put down, so I finished it in two long evenings and part of a day. This is one of those books that has something for everybody, and provides a very good account of how science progresses despite the efforts of some scientists. Glen's book is very well edited...thought provoking and makes for excellent reading (and discussing)...I want to reiterate that the book provides a good chronicle of an important part of the K-T boundary [debates] research, sets the whole debate in the framework of previous geological debates, and renders a lively picture of science in progress. I recommend this volume to practically everybody with an interest in the earth sciences...this volume should also make great reading for undergraduate and graduate seminars." From James W. McAllister, University of Leiden, the Netherlands: This semester I am giving a seminar course based on the book The Mass-Extinction Debates. The course has attracted biologists and physicists as well as a number of students of ours who are specializing in philosophy of science. I find that the book works very well in this role: I am especially pleased to be able to offer students a detailed picture of a concrete scientific controversy that is still unresolved...Thank for for a very interesting book that my students are enjoying." From Contemporary Sociology by Homer Le Grand, University of Melbourne: "Glen's deftly assembled and edited collection bears out the value of controvery studies as a window onto science. Glen contributes expository and analytic chapters in which he presents the first detailed examination of both arguments and the behavior of those actively engages in the [mass-exstinction debates]. Many...including some of the debaters themselves, will avidly turn to the...chapter in which Glen gives a precis of some of the lessons that he would draw from the debates thus far. Glen's presentation is notable for its clear explication, and its effective and arresting coupling of technical matters and social worlds. His analysis is particularlyu compelling because it is based upon a highly detailed longitudinal study... He avoids many of the traps by drawing freely upon his unrivaled archive of contemporaneous interviews, preprints, correspondence, and ephemera. This gives considerable depth to his comments about the cognitive and social importance specialization... This volume constitutes not only a valuable source of insights into a major, ongoing scientific controversy, but also a resource for those of us who will surely mine it to enrich our own sociological, philosophical, and historical models of scientific culture." From Choice by M.A. Wilson, College of Wooster:"This is a wonderful volume, highly recommended for all libraries and everyone in science or the philosophy [and sociology] of science.[Glen's] genius has been to record int

Excellent book showing the clash of individual convictions

Dr. William Glen, in his book The Mass Extinction Debates: How Scinece Works in a Crisis, shows how the conclusions of many scientists often differ. Each scientist believes that their theory is correct and thus stands by their ideas. This can often culmunate into several groups of scientists working to verify their hypothesis. The mass extinction debates were a group of conferences designed to get to the bottom of the most famous mass extinction, 65 million years ago, which wiped out the dinosaurs. Was it a comet, climate or volcanism? Each scientist in the book presents their views in a language that is very accesible to the lay person. The reader becomes drawn into the debates when each new conclusion becomes a logical possibility. The power, whether manifested from within the earth as volcanism or from space as a comet, had to be strong enough to eleiminate everything over 50 pounds from the face of the earth. The theories presented offer a window into the strongest and most dynamic forces of physics. The book does not represent a viewpoint of its own. Rather, it presents the arguments for the reader to review, digest and contemplate. The attraction to this book comes from the readers realization that a mass extinction is possilbe today. The cause of such extinctions is intriquing. The book swept me away and I reccommend it highly.