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soph ([personal profile] sophia_sol) wrote2014-08-11 07:02 pm

T. rex and the Crater of Doom, by Walter Alvarez

I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK.

Walter Alvarez, the author, was one of the central people in the development of the theory that a cataclysmic impact caused the major extinction event at the KT boundary - which included everything from foraminifera to dinosaurs. And this book is about how they figured this out. It is clearly aimed at a general audience and it is immensely readable and delightful.

My inner preteen self is so happy right now. I was an enormous dinosaur nerd as a kid and wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up. And actually one of the most surprising things about reading this book was how much of the content I knew already - not the more detailed scientific processes, but the overarching story and arguments, all of that I knew very well indeed. And indeed some parts of the story (eg the stuff about the Deccan Traps) I actually know in more detail than is covered in the book. I have no idea what I was reading as a kid but I clearly wasn't just screwing around. But then I've always been the sort of person to get very intense about areas of interest!

It was disconcerting to realize the timeline of the KT extinction discoveries, though; it was only in the early 90's that the Chicxulub crater was finally discovered. As in, WITHIN MY LIFETIME, and only shortly before my burgeoning interest in dinosaurs really flowered. What I remember from my readings as a kid was that there was no agreement at all about the death of the dinosaurs - whether it'd been a slow extinction or a sudden event, and what the cause was. Because all of this was BREAKING SCIENCE and there'd not yet been any scholarly consensus trickling down to kiddie dinosaur books! So I'd read about the Chicxulub crater, of course, but I hadn't realized before reading this book just how clear the evidence is that the Chicxulub impact had caused a major extinction event, whether it was definitively what caused the end of the dinosaurs in particular or not.

Also I was fascinated by the way a lot of the story was framed as a push-pull between uniformitarianism and catastrophism as frameworks of looking at Earth's history, and the eventual realization that there's actually some of BOTH. Because this isn't something I've ever heard talked about before! The comparison between the discovery of plate tectonics and the realization that catastrophic impacts are a thing that happen was really interesting.

One of the things that makes me happiest about this book, though, is its commitment to and joy in the scientific process. The author is just so genuinely and clearly delighted to have been able to collaborate with so many awesome people and to have so much interdisciplinary work going on; and he always talks in terms of the greatest respect even for the people who disagree(d) with him utterly. He talks about how the vociferous debates and disagreements fostered additional efforts to figure things out and get things right. And about how science is of course full of wrong turns and mistakes but if you just keep working away you will figure more and more things out!

It gave me a lot of science feels, is the conclusion of the preceding paragraph. SCIENTISTS DOING SCIENCE! SCIENTISTS BEING FRIENDS! SCIENTISTS WORKING TOGETHER! SCIENCE!!!!

I very nearly chose to study geology and/or geography in university and reading this book reminds me why: it's really cool. I was genuinely fascinated by the various geological details that were discussed, and kept wishing that the photographs of rock outcroppings were larger and higher quality. And I would have been happy if the author had gotten even more technical about various details!

For the last...idk, YEARS, probably, I've been ending up too much on the arts side of the arts-science divide and have started to think of myself as more of an artsy sort of person. But reading this book reminded me how much I love science too. SCIENCE IS GREAT.
justice_turtle: A penguin on a yellow background, captioned "I dived out of sight into an alleyway GRACEFULLY" (frobisher alleyway gracefully)

[personal profile] justice_turtle 2014-08-11 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
I HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK YET, CLEARLY I NEED TO FIND A COPY IMMEDIATELY
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[personal profile] genarti 2014-08-12 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Oooh, this book sounds fascinating! And I was a tiny dinosaur-obsessed kid, too, although the Deccan Event doesn't ring a bell so possibly I didn't read as deeply about it as you.

I remember the same sorts of kiddie books saying that nobody was sure if it was a slow extinction or a sudden event or what or why, but I also remember seeing a National Geographic or Smithsonian article about a crater in the Yucatan that JUST MIGHT BE DEFINITIVE PROOF OF HOW THE DINOSAURS WENT EXTINCT!!!. I don't remember when exactly that was, but I was old enough to be reading those magazines (we always had them around the house) but young enough to still be reading Dinosaur And Extinct Mammal Encyclopedias For The Youth.
genarti: ([misc] mundus librorum)

[personal profile] genarti 2014-08-12 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
NO IT'S GREAT, PLEASE CARRY ON WITH RANDOM SCIENCE INFODUMPS.

I remember the volcanism theories, but not the name or the location of the Deccan Traps. Very cool! Especially that it's just coincidence -- that's so random, and as such so cool. (Probably not cool for everything living at the time, but oh well.)