ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 599
January 1, 2016
Fossil Friday
This week in Fossil Friday, I have a specimen from a species that is part of an interesting story, although sadly my photo quality is rather poor.
The fragments from which this specimen was reconstructed were found in Italy, and I think that, with all the hard work I did obscuring the text in the photograph, that is all I’m giving you by way of clues this week. What is it? The first person to guess right wins bragging rights for the week!
Philosophical Advice for a Pre-Med Student with Grade Struggles
December 31, 2015
The Rocky Road to Acceptance, Part 4
Steven Dutch concludes his review of James L. Powell’s Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences (2015), which began with part 1 and continued in part 2 and part 3.
Conclusions
I only found one significant technical error in the book. Powell erroneously states that isostasy causes the plumb lines of surveying instruments to point away from the Himalayas (page 68). In reality, the British survey had anticipated a deflection toward the mountains, but when it turned out to be larger than expected, they turned to George Airy, the Astronomer Royal, for an explanation. Airy found that the deflection should have been far larger than even the large value observed, and hypothesized that a mass deficit at depth was offsetting some of the attraction of the mass excess above the surface. The plumb lines deflected toward the mountains, not away. Powell also cites a slightly wrong value for the height of Mount Whitney (page 246), perhaps quoted from one of the historical sources he used.
Powell’s tone sometimes suffers a bit from a lack of empathy for the limitations under which scientists worked in the past. Asking why the separation of continents didn’t mangle the edges beyond reconstruction, or why the trailing edges didn’t scatter fragments behind them, are not petty, obstructionist quibbles. They were serious and perfectly reasonable questions given the knowledge of the time (nobody realized that the continents ride passively rather than plowing through the mantle). Nor was it unreasonable for the doubters of Svante Arrhenius’s theories about the greenhouse effect to ask how adding carbon dioxide could have any effect, since even a small amount absorbed all the energy in the absorption bands of carbon dioxide. (The answer, since this still comes up in denialist writings, is that radiation plays almost no role at Earth’s surface. Convection transports heat to the top of the troposphere, and only there is heat radiated into space. Carbon dioxide at that altitude is critical in retarding the loss of heat. And water vapor is not a factor since the upper atmosphere is extremely dry. Powell explains all this.)
In defense of the Establishment, theories that “explain all the facts” are cheaper than dirt in science, and very often the easiest, laziest way to explain facts is to concoct some grand sweeping “theory of everything.” The “simplest” explanation of the Apollo moon landings is that they were simulated on a sound stage. The “simplest” explanation for 9/11 is that the Twin Towers were brought down by a controlled demolition or an exotic energy weapon. The revolutions in this book, in their initial and still somewhat speculative and weakly supported forms, would have had much the same quality about them. Physics won’t allow a really ancient Earth? Invent new physics (as creationists actually do to try to explain away radiometric dating). True, new physics did evolve, but based on real evidence, not wishful thinking. Similarities between continents? Move them around, instead of doing decades of fieldwork looking for alternative explanations. Mysterious crater? Something fell from the sky. Meanwhile, crank theories just as sweeping were rampant. Ignatius Donnelly, Hans Hörbinger and the Welteislehre, and Isaac Asimov’s “grand old man of the fringe” Immanuel Velikovsky all clamored for attention alongside meteor impact and continental drift. It’s hard to blame many scientists for putting them all on the same plane.
Overall, I was delighted by the excellent quality of this book. As a reviewer I had to find a few glitches to prove I was awake, but they are very minor. The research is thorough and relies on quality sources. This book would be an excellent text for a history of science course, and an excellent resource for anyone teaching such a course.
Steven Dutch is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Natural and Applied Sciences (Geoscience), University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, and the coauthor, with Joseph M. Moran and James S. Monroe, of the textbook Earth Science (Belmont [CA]: West/Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1998). He is signatory #424 to Project Steve.
These Are National Geographic’s Favorite Photographs From 2015
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Caught on camera: A molten firework display at the Lantern Festival in Hebei Province, China. Yang Shiyao, Xinhua/eyevine/Redux/
National Geographic has released an album of its favourite Daily Travel Photographs of 2015. Assessed both on their creativity and their content, the images capture all the natural wonder and cultural intrigue that comes with globetrotting. Be prepared to want to grab your passport and pack your bags.
The 10 Biggest Scientific Hoaxes Of 2015
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JoemanjiArts/Shutterstock
With each new year comes a new wave of conspiracy theories, and 2015 was definitely no exception.
In the past, we’ve had to deal with shapes on Mars that slightly resemble a recognizable object, claims that UFOs are visiting Earth, and *shudder* Moon landing deniers.
This year, those conspiracy theorists really took it up a notch. We were treated to not only more aliens visiting Earth, but extinct animals coming back to life and even a new round of end-of-the-world conspiracies.
The Top 10 Weirdest Science Stories Of 2015
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Science can be splendidly silly sometimes. S.Pytel
2015 has been many things, from happy to melancholy, from tragic to uplifting. In the world of science, however, things have often been decidedly wacky. In honor of the stranger side of science, here are our picks for the Top 10 Weirdest Stories Of 2015.
Does Legal Cannabis Increase Alcohol Use? It’s Complicated
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When marijuana becomes legal, even if only for medical use, there are likely to be effects on the use of alcohol. We're just having trouble finding out what those are. Milosz_M/Shutterstock
Is legalized marijuana a gateway drug to other forms of substance abuse? Or would safer access encourage people to ease back on other vices? This has been one of the major questions bedeviling the legalization debate. Now that four American states have legalized recreational use of cannabis, we ought to be getting some answers. Sadly, a review of the studies done so far suggests the picture isn't getting much clearer.
Humongous Sea Spiders From Antarctica Baffle Scientists
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Scientists don't really know why giant sea spiders exist. YouTube/PycnoWatchThis
If you're reading this, you probably aren't a spider, and may even have a strong aversion towards eight-legged, web-weaving creepy crawlies – especially giant ones. However, we regret to inform you that spiders of epic proportions are more than just the stuff of fiction, and do indeed walk among us. Even more alarming is that scientists are unable to explain why they are growing to such an enormous size.
NASA Releases Most Detailed Map Of The Oceans Yet
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NASA's ocean floor map. Red areas are mountain and ridges, blue areas are canyon and trenches, by NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua Stevens
The bottom of the ocean is a mysterious place. We probably know the surface of Mars better than areas in the Atlantic and the Pacific. But we now have our best look at the seafloor yet, thanks to the NASA Earth Observatory.
The researchers looked at gravitational anomalies to produce a detailed analysis of underwater features, and by doing this were able to spot anything larger than 5 kilometers (3 miles).
Ecosystems Recover Fast After Dam Removal
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American dippers such as these are important measures of the health of river ecosystems in western North America. Ohio State University
A bird that suffers badly when dams interfere with its food supply has been found to recover rapidly when the dams are removed. The finding is being taken as evidence that it is possible for damaged ecosystems to recover when past mistakes are righted.
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