The Mass-Extinction Debates : How Science Works in a Crisis / ed. by William Glen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Briggs, John C., Contributor.

Clemens, Elisabeth S., Contributor.

Clube, S. V. M., Contributor.

Glen, William, Contributor.

Glen, William, Editor.

Hsű, Kenneth J., Contributor.

McLaren, Digby J., Contributor.

Raup, David M., Contributor.

Sepkoski, J. John, Contributor.

Shaw, Herbert R., Contributor.

Van Valen, Leigh M., Contributor.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (388 p.)

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2022]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

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 quieter times are hidden from view. The book concludes with an overarching discussion by a balanced panel of embattled scientists and scholars.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Contents

The Contributors

Introduction

1. What the Impact/Volcanism I Mass-Extinction Debates Are About

2. How Science Works in the Mass-Extinction Debates

3. The Impact Hypothesis and Popular Science: Conditions and Consequences of Interdisciplinary Debate

4. Impacts and Extinctions: Science or Dogma?

5. What I Did with My Research Career: Or How Research on Biodiversity Yielded Data on Extinction

6. The Extinction Debates: A View from the Trenches

7. Hazards from Space: Comets in History and Science

8. The Liturgy of Science: Chaos, Number, and the Meaning of Evolution

9. Concepts and the Nature of Selection by Extinction: Is Generalization Possible?

10. Uniformitarianism vs. Catastrophism in the Extinction Debate

11. Mass Extinctions: Fact or Fallacy?

12. On the Mass-Extinction Debates: An Interview with William A. Clemens

13. On the Mass-Extinction Debates: An Interview with Stephen Jay Gould

14.

Endnotes

References Cited

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 31. Jan 2022)

ISBN:

0-8047-6594-4

OCLC:

1294425605