60 research outputs found
What a Catastrophe!― Science Abandons Uniformitarianism?
This chapter tracks the fascinating and unexpected changes of fortune which have attended the scientific notion of uniformitarianism since its emergence in the early nineteenth century at the hands of geologists such as Sir Charles Lyell. The key role played in this narrative by Price is noted and the changing manner in which this story has been told by Adventist and other recent creationist authors is described
Julius Kaljuvee, Ivan Reinwald, and Estonian pioneering ideas on meteorite impacts and cosmic neocatastrophism in the early 20th century
The article comprehensively presents little known Estonian contribution to the recognition of
first meteorite impact structures in Europe, related to works of Julius Kaljuvee (Kalkun; 1869–1940) and
Ivan Reinwald (Reinwaldt; 1878–1941). As an active educator specialized in geoscience, Kaljuvee was the
first to hypothesize in 1922 that Kaali lake cirque in Saaremaa Island, Estonia, was created by meteorite
impact. Thanks to mining engineer Reinwald, this assumption was accepted since 1928 due to the
exhaustive field and borehole works of the latter (also as a result of exploration by several German scholars,
including renowned Alfred Wegener). The impact origin of Kaali structure was proved finally in 1937 by
finding of meteoritic iron splinters (as the first European site). Reinwald was not only outstanding
investigator of meteorite cratering process, but also successful propagator of the Estonian discoveries in
Anglophone mainstream science in 1930s. In addition, in his 1933 book, Kaljuvee first highlighted an
impact explanation of enigmatic Ries structure in Bavaria, as well as probable magmatic activation in distant
regions due to “the impulse of a giant meteorite”. He also outlined ideas of the inevitable periodic cosmic
collisions in geological past (“rare event” theory nowadays), and resulting biotic crises. In a general
conceptual context, the ideas of Kaljuvee were in noteworthy direct or indirect link with concepts of the
great French naturalists – Laplace, Cuvier and Élie de Beaumont. However, some other Kaljuvee’s notions,
albeit recurrent also later in geoscientific literature, are queer at the present time (e.g., the large-body impact
as a driving force of continental drift and change the Earth axis, resulting in the Pleistocene glaciation).
Thus, the Kaljuvee thought-provocative but premature dissertation is rather a record of distinguishing
erudite activity, but not a real neocatastrophic landmark in geosciences history. Nevertheless, several
concepts of Kaljuvee were revived as the key elements in the current geological paradigm
Catastrophes versus events in the geologic past: how does the scale matter?
[Abstract] Catastrophes were common in the geologic past, but their distinction from other events is necessary. Besides magnitude (strength), scales of events are important in a solution of this task. Several examples, which involve Late Paleozoic and Quaternary megafloods, Hadean and Phanerozoic extraterrestrial impacts, and Phanerozoic mass extinctions, ensure that scaling by spatial extent and diversity of consequences facilitates tracing the boundary between catastrophes and “ordinary” events. This boundary, however, is dynamic and its position depends on our subjective needs. Considerations of the geologic past should not mix catastrophes of different scales. The event analysis helps to avoid such a pitfall, and, therefore, it should be preferred to neocatastrophism in modern geoscience
The Flood of Antievolutionism
In 1963, American historian Richard Hofstadter wrote that today the evolutionary controversy seems as remote as the Homeric era.\u27\u27 The Biological Sciences Curriculum Study Project, supported in part by federal funds, was preparing secondary school texts that openly presented evolution as the foundation of biology. And George McCready Price, an outspoken leader of the protest against evolution in the days of the Scopes monkey trial and author of numerous antievolutionary tomes, including The Phantom of Organic Evolution (1924), A History of Some Scientific Blunders (1930), The Modern Flood Theory of Geology (1935), and Genesis Vindicated (1941), died at the age of 92. But 1963 was also the year that the Creation Research Society - and with it, organized scientific creationism\u27\u27 - was born
On the First Anthropic Argument in Astrobiology
We consider the little-known anthropic argument of Fontenelle dealing with
the nature of cometary orbits, given a year before the publication of Newton's
Principia. This is particularly interesting in view of the rapid development of
the recently resurgent theories of cometary catastrophism and their role in the
modern astrobiological debates, for instance in the "rare Earth" hypothesis of
Ward and Brownlee.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures, submitted to "Earth, Moon, and Planets
The main epistomological assumptions of contemporary biology (a survey)
Cognitive condition of any scientific domain depends on its location among other fields of study, since relationships with the closest „neighbors” supplies, so it seems, fruitful analogies in executing the most important scientific functions: description, explanation and pre/postdiction. This way acquired interdiscip¬linary knowledge has its contribution in the ideal of objectivity, most crucial in creating the image of fully matured science. This does not mean however, that we are dealing with the relationships abandoned of any limits between different scientific disciplines today. Quite contrary, specialization, peculiarity or autonomy of study seems to be equally justified feature of every advanced research, acquired especially through different methods and interpretation, invented and applied to various objects of study. Certainly, both reciprocal currents tend to shape contemporary research in all natural history. In this essay however, I will try to indicate only these concerning biology
Can Collimated Extraterrestrial Signals be Intercepted?
The Optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (OSETI) attempts to
detect collimated, narrowband pulses of electromagnetic radiation. These pulses
may either consist of signals intentionally directed at the Earth, or signals
between two star systems with a vector that unintentionally intersects the
Solar System, allowing Earth to intercept the communication. But should we
expect to be able to intercept these unintentional signals? And what
constraints can we place upon the frequency of intelligent civilisations if we
do?
We carry out Monte Carlo Realisation simulations of interstellar
communications between civilisations in the Galactic Habitable Zone (GHZ) using
collimated beams. We measure the frequency with which beams between two stars
are intercepted by a third. The interception rate increases linearly with the
fraction of communicating civilisations, and as the cube of the beam opening
angle, which is somewhat stronger than theoretical expectations, which we argue
is due to the geometry of the GHZ. We find that for an annular GHZ containing
10,000 civilisations, intersections are unlikely unless the beams are
relatively uncollimated.
These results indicate that optical SETI is more likely to find signals
deliberately directed at the Earth than accidentally intercepting collimated
communications. Equally, civilisations wishing to establish a network of
communicating species may use weakly collimated beams to build up the network
through interception, if they are willing to pay a cost penalty that is lower
than that meted by fully isotropic beacons. Future SETI searches should
consider the possibility that communicating civilisations will attempt to
strike a balance between optimising costs and encouraging contact between
civilisations, and look for weakly collimated pulses as well as narrow-beam
pulses directed deliberately at the Earth.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in JBI
Baer and modern biology : abstracts of the international conference held in Tartu, 28.2 - 2.3 1992
http://www.ester.ee/record=b4130058*es
A Stochastic Process Approach of the Drake Equation Parameters
The number N of detectable (i.e. communicating) extraterrestrial
civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy is usually done by using the Drake
equation. This equation was established in 1961 by Frank Drake and was the
first step to quantifying the SETI field. Practically, this equation is rather
a simple algebraic expression and its simplistic nature leaves it open to
frequent re-expression An additional problem of the Drake equation is the
time-independence of its terms, which for example excludes the effects of the
physico-chemical history of the galaxy. Recently, it has been demonstrated that
the main shortcoming of the Drake equation is its lack of temporal structure,
i.e., it fails to take into account various evolutionary processes. In
particular, the Drake equation doesn't provides any error estimation about the
measured quantity. Here, we propose a first treatment of these evolutionary
aspects by constructing a simple stochastic process which will be able to
provide both a temporal structure to the Drake equation (i.e. introduce time in
the Drake formula in order to obtain something like N(t)) and a first standard
error measure.Comment: 22 pages, 0 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in the
International Journal of Astrobiolog
Archaeoseismology of the AD 1545 earthquake in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand
The A.D. 1545 Chiang Mai earthquake in northern Thailand was studied by historical and archaeological sources.The temple Wat Chedi Luang has lost about half of the original 80-metres height due to southward-directed collapse. Twenty-one temple sites – out of 74 visited – has tilted pagodas, up to 5° in various directions, dominated by a SE trend. All damaged temples were built before the 1545 earthquake. We suggest that a city-wide liquefaction event caused tilting. The responsible earthquake possibly occurred along the Doi Suthep Fault within city limits. Possible activity of distant faults is assessed
- …