The Innocent Assassins

by Björn Kurtén, Eric J. Friis (Translator)

Björn Olof Lennartson Kurtén (1924–1988) was a distinguished vertebrate paleontologist. He belonged to the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. He was a professor in paleontology at the University of Helsinki from 1972 up to his death in 1988. He also spent a year as lecturing guest professor at Harvard University in 1971. In addition to many non-fiction books, he was also the author of an acclaimed series of books about modern man's encounter with Neanderthals, such as Dance of the Tiger (1978). He received several awards for his books around popularized science, among others the Kalinga Prize from UNESCO. In his fascinating collection, The Innocent Assassins, Kurten combines the philosophy of science and evolutionary biology with amusing anecdotes from the field work. Written for the general reader, these essays provide an interesting explanation of natural selection and theory of evolution, philosophical issues of evolutionary biology, the place of the human species in the universe. Kurten portrays such prehistoric animals as dinosaurs, saber tooth cats, and 12-million-year-old goat antelopes. He relays fascinating tales of prehistoric bison frozen in the tundra, kept fresh for 36,000 years, and an \"Eve\" from which all humans descend. He also recounts how a prehistoric Argentinian bird with a wingspan of over 23 feet could fly and how the \"Incredible Shrinking Man's\" body would function, as well as the physical impossibility of a giant creature like King Kong. The Innocent Assassins is brilliantly illuminated by the illustrations of Viking Nystrom.

Genres: Nonfiction

206 pages, Hardcover

First published April 15, 1991

About the author

Björn Olof Lennartson Kurtén (1924–1988) was a distinguished vertebrate paleontologist. He belonged to the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland. He was a professor in paleontology at the University of Helsinki from 1972 up to his death in 1988. He also spent a year as lecturing guest professor at Harvard University in 1971.
In Not from the Apes (1971) Kurtén argued that man's development has been separate from that of monkeys and apes for at least 35 million years, and that man did not descend from anthropoids, but rather the reverse.
He was also the author of an acclaimed series of books about modern man's encounter with Neanderthals, such as Dance of the Tiger (1978, 1980). When asked what genre these works belonged in, Kurtén coined the term paleofiction to describe his oeuvre. This genre was popularized by Jean M. Auel in her Earth's Children series of books. He received several awards for his books around popularized science, among others the Kalinga Prize from UNESCO.
In the 1980s, Kurtén also hosted a 6-part TV series about the ice age, co-produced by several Scandinavian TV channels.

Reviews

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have just finished this marvelous frolic through the philosophy of science and evolutionary biology. In the first essay he wonders why no one ever attacks Dalton (the scholar who formulated atomic theory) or Einstein's E=MC, the way they do evolution. The problem is they aren’t fair game. There is no money nor fame to be earned by attacking scientists whose obscure theories involve intricate mathematical models . Darwin and biologists are not so lucky. They must constantly explain and defend their work to the public. This is not necessarily a bad thing. "Nothing clears the brain better than to have to explain your ,job to persons who are not specialists in it.

One of Darwin’s greatest contributions to science, if not to mankind, was his development of population theory, the realization that all individuals are unique, that differences between individuals are real and important. Even identical twins are different though they contain the same genes; the influence of environment can never be the same at all times. The old view, called essentialism, reduced everything to typology, i.e. the belief that every species or race can be reduced to a "type," distinct and unchangeable. The misuse and misunderstanding of this theory was easily perverted to form the basis for racism and sexism. Kurten ruminates on the difference between science and pseudoscience. Science maintains a healthy curiosity about what things are really like. "Pseudoscience, on the other hand, is produced by those who ’know’ beforehand what the answer is going to be." Scientists may have an idea where their research may lead, but they are always ready to change their opinion. (Kurten argues that changing one’s opinion about something every day keeps one youthful as long as there is validity to the change, of course.) Pseudoscience represents a shortcut in the search for happiness, hence its popular appeal. Science forces us to face the truth, unpleasant as it may be.