Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining analysis of the process of scientific discovery, March 9, 2000
The strong points in this book are these: 1) it is a thoroughly entertaining detailed account of the discovery of the causes for the mass extinction which occurred at the K-T boundary, and 2) it provides an insightful anaylsis of the many pitfalls, lucky strikes, and false trails which are characterstic of any process of true scientific discovery. As such it reminds us of how careful and open-minded scientists need to be in dealing with new insights and discoveries. For those who are trained scientists, the book is mainly written for the layperson, especially the geological aspects, but that is fine, because as a geologist I am strongly of the view that we need more geological education and understanding in the general community. It is fine if science is written simplistically as long as it is accurate. Walter Alvalrez, for the most part, with perhaps a few exceptions, has managed to achieve this careful tension. The book is not an overview of the various theories and developments concerning mass extinction events, but rather a story of the search told by some who have been deeply involved. Therefore the fact that it doesn't provide an objective overview of the available theories, whilst true, is not really relevant here; Walter Alvarez is telling a story of mostly his own experiences, and those with whom he has worked. As long as this is understood, the book is educational, entertaining, and a thoroughly enjoyable read. I would like to add for those with some knowledge of geological science, that we have some very good exposures of the Permian-Triassic boundary in Australia, which Mr Alvarez notes is not so common in the northern hemisphere. This boundary is recognised as the biggest mass extinction of all, and some of these exposures have not been studied in much detail,let alone from the point of view of mass extinctions. Perhaps, being thus far somewhat geographically isolated from the scientific community of the northern hemisphere, Australia will provide some exciting new developments in our understanding of mass extinctions.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
T.rex and the Crater of Doom, November 17, 2002
T.rex and the Crate of Doom written by Waler Alvarez is a book about what occured around 65 million years ago on earth. Yes, the Chicxulub crater off the North coast of the Yucatan peninsula.As it seems, the disciplines of geology and paleontology are the are the Earth historians. Like you or I reading a paper for the news, geologists and paleontologists read the fossil recond in the rocks. By observing, measuring, and interpreting the information held fast through the eons of time, the earth's history can been seen and understood. There are two camps in these disciplins the camp of gradualism where everything takes times... sometimes an enormous length of time, then there are those of the camp catastrophism, something awful happen like a comet of meteor crashing into the earth. Well, this book falls mainly into the latter camp as the work on the K-T layer (Cretaecous-Tertiary) Iridium was found and the cause soon revealed that it came from an extraterrestrial source. To be realistic, one must use both camps to come up with the true answer. This book has seven chapters: Armageddon, ExLibro Lapidum Historia Mundi, Gradualist versus Catastrophist,
Iridum, The Search for the Impact Site, The Crater of Doom, and The World after Chicxulub. Each of these chapters bring the read more information on how science, if applied correctly can render an answer to some nagging questions. This book tell about what happens when a meteor the size of Mt. Everest crashes into the earth and the consequenses that follow. As the author states, "The hugh cloud of vaporized rock generated at ground zero was driven outward by its own heat and pressure in a colossal fireball." Mexican geologists found the Chicxulub crater back in the 1950's, but the general knowledge of Chicxulub didn't become common knowledge until 1991. As more and more evidence becames available, the extinction of the mosters of the Mesozoic is starting to favor the catastrophist theory... but we can only guess, but an intelligent guess is better than not knowing. This book was a fast read and the narrative flowed freely just like reading a detective story and all of the pieces of the mystery come together. This book has a little chemistry and physics in it so I believe that this show be read by age 16 and up. All in all, the is an excellent book and a fascinating story unfolds with some of the best firsthand paleontological science unraveling the mystries of that great extinction 65 millions years ago. Nevertheless, this is a chilling reminder of the fragility of the biosphere, which is under a constant threat from asteroids, meteorites, bolides and comets.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good KT History for the Non-Specialist, December 28, 2001
The title of this book says everything you need to know about its literary style. It's a fun romp through one of the leading scientific controversies in modern geology and paleontology, told by one of the central figures. It is not a scientific treatise, but a book of scientific history, detailing the process by which geochemical "detectives" sorted through Nature's red herrings in the attempt to track down the object that murdered the dinosaurs. It's also a case study in the philosophical debate between catastrophe theories and gradualism in a science so marked by its long debate with certain groups of religious conservatives that it developed a reflexive antagonism to any suggestion that some events might not have taken place over "geologic" time scales. A world-altering meteor impact was not something the gradualists wanted to discover. Alvarez clearly believes that the discovery of a 65-million-year-old impact crater on Mexico's Gulf Coast has pretty much resolved the question of what killed the dinos, and he's written his book to an audience of like-minded folk. If you're on the fence, the book might convince you. If you're in the opposing camp, it won't-nor is that the book's purpose. Rather, Alvarez is out to tell a good story of the progress of science. If, along the way, he teaches a bit of geology and convinces a few readers that geochemistry and geophysics are "cool," so much the better. Give this book to a high school kid with an interest in science-but read it yourself, first.
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