Species Extinction By Asteroid A Rarity

[Guest Nicholas]

WARNING! very debatable content. Keep it nice.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 10, 2008) — In geology as in cancer research, the silver bullet theory always gets the headlines and nearly always turns out to be wrong. For geologists who study mass extinctions, the silver bullet is a giant asteroid plunging to earth.

Find the article HERE!

[Auspex]

Smoking guns are often too convienient.

To quote Calvin, speaking to Hobbes:

"That's the problem with science; a bunch of empiricists trying to explain things of unimaginable wonder".

[mommabetts]

I like to read about all of the possiblities as to what could have happened, but I keep comeing up with one question, Unless 1 was there how can anyone be for sure? Therefore I think that they will be debating this for a very very long time to come. There are too many what ifs and could haves out there.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

IDK, I don't think that it is all that contentious. The only evidence for extra-terestrial causes is the Chicxulub impact structure. Most of the rest are associated with climate change, and/or out gassing in periods of orogenic episodes, e.g; Ord, Dev, Per.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

Too, if one looks at the decline of specie during the Mes, the Chicxulub impact is probably the "straw that broke the camels back" rather than being the sole cause.

[Auspex]

With landmasses behaving like bumpercars, ocean circulation (and thus world climate) had to play a role.

[Guest solius symbiosus]

There is some pretty neat stratigraphy associated with the Ordovician glaciation located just down the road from me. The next time I am down that way, I will take some pics.

[Guest Nicholas]

Too, if one looks at the decline of specie during the Mes, the Chicxulub impact is probably the "straw that broke the camels back" rather than being the sole cause.

I tend to feel the same way on the subject, species were already in decline and the impact finished them off so to speak.

[tracer]

"In geology as in cancer research, the silver bullet theory always gets the headlines and nearly always turns out to be wrong."

Bullcrap. What kind of analogy is this, and when a sentence has two "always" in it, whoever wrote it is way too confident in using absolute terms. Granted, a "nearly" qualifier was thrown in, but still. One of the first things I learned in Philosophy 240, Introduction to Logic, was that statements using always or never are likely to be wrong, because there seem to be few universal truths. My favorite thing from that course was logical fallacies like reverse syllogisms. And I've heard some wild analogies in my life, but comparing geology to cancer research takes the cake. But I guess butterflies are like bowling balls because they both start with "b".

Guess I didn't keep it nice, did I? But at least I didn't take on anyone's pet theory.

[mommabetts]

Tracer, you sure have a way with words!!!!!

[Guest solius symbiosus]

"In geology as in cancer research, the silver bullet theory always gets the headlines and nearly always turns out to be wrong."

Bullcrap. What kind of analogy is this, and when a sentence has two "always" in it, whoever wrote it is way too confident in using absolute terms. Granted, a "nearly" qualifier was thrown in, but still. One of the first things I learned in Philosophy 240, Introduction to Logic, was that statements using always or never are likely to be wrong, because there seem to be few universal truths. My favorite thing from that course was logical fallacies like reverse syllogisms. And I've heard some wild analogies in my life, but comparing geology to cancer research takes the cake. But I guess butterflies are like bowling balls because they both start with "b".

Guess I didn't keep it nice, did I? But at least I didn't take on anyone's pet theory.

You lost me on that one. Geology is a lot like cancer research, and all of the sciences, in that they all use the same method to validate a hypothesis. Too, there are many universal "truths"; they are called laws.

[tracer]

People generalize and categorize in order to wrap their brains more easily around complexities. "All the sciences" include a number of things that were politicized into being considered sciences by those who wished to be considered scientists. They for some reason wanted B.S. degrees to go with their PhDs. And what percentage of the things people tout as fact are scientific "laws"? I did not say there were no constants or facts - just few in relation to the certainties of mind possessed by many. And how do the methodologies people use in examining things make the things themselves analogous? And why do the headline writers "always" use the silver bullet theories in those two instances, when most writers try to find new angles on tired old subject matter so as to get published and/or paid? What's that old adage of the ivory tower of academia, "Publish or Perish"? Scientists would most certainly (<=absolute) tell me that the problem is that I obviously don't understand science. Which would be correct. The more I study, the less I'm sure of, but I still like to study, and I'm comfortable with living in uncertainly, because I consider it a given - the human condition. And I have no idea why I pontificate. Sooooo, Good Night! <and he slunk away and returned to the primordial ooze from whence he'd come, to wait, and watch, and consider>

[Guest solius symbiosus]

"All the sciences" include a number of things that were politicized into being considered sciences by those who wished to be considered scientists.

I should have qualified my statement. I meant the physical sciences. Many of the sciences have overlapping disciplines. For example, Geology shares disciplines with Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geography, Mathematics, ect... They all share the scientific method, and ultimately their end goals are all the same... the pursuit of knowledge.

[tracer]

For those into attempting to define their terms - the fossil asteroid...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/...81120080439.htm

P.S. - Much of what lay persons consider urine is actually fossil beer.

[Auspex]

For those into attempting to define their terms - the fossil asteroid...

"Hidden in mud and buried beneath the Pacific Ocean..."

Um, wrong ocean. What kind of tabloid are they running?

[jpbowden]

That's Ok Auspex, they are probably drunk on fossil beer. I once read an article on Rutish, to which started out top notch, but half way through the first page the person typing it out clearly had a thought that changed the whole subject. He had replaced the "R" with an "N" and from that point on, there was no way to contain myself. Ahhhhh, fossil beer.....................