Powell, James Lawrence (Author)
Over the course of the twentieth century, scientists came to accept four counterintuitive yet fundamental facts about the Earth: deep time, continental drift, meteorite impact, and global warming. When first suggested, each proposition violated scientific orthodoxy and was quickly denounced as scientific--and sometimes religious--heresy. Nevertheless, after decades of rejection, scientists came to accept each theory. The stories behind these four discoveries reflect more than the fascinating push and pull of scientific work. They reveal the provocative nature of science and how it raises profound and sometimes uncomfortable truths as it advances. For example, counter to common sense, the Earth and the solar system are older than all of human existence; the interactions among the moving plates and the continents they carry account for nearly all of the Earth's surface features; and nearly every important feature of our solar system results from the chance collision of objects in space. Most surprising of all, we humans have altered the climate of an entire planet and now threaten the future of civilization. This absorbing scientific history is the only book to describe the evolution of these four ideas from heresy to truth, showing how science works in practice and how it inevitably corrects the mistakes of its practitioners. Scientists can be wrong, but they do not stay wrong. In the process, astonishing ideas are born, tested, and over time take root.
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Book
Oreskes, Naomi;
(2002)
Plate Tectonics: An Insider's History of the Modern Theory of the Earth
(/isis/citation/CBB000201617/)
Article
Bento Cavadas;
(2021)
Plate tectonics in Portugese and Spanish science textbooks: From the 1960s to the 1980s
(/isis/citation/CBB678809466/)
Book
Oldroyd, David R.;
(2002)
The Earth Inside and Out: Some Major Contributions to Geology in the Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000201240/)
Article
Oreskes, Naomi;
(2013)
Earth Science: How Plate Techtonics Clicked
(/isis/citation/CBB001320428/)
Chapter
Grevsmühl, Sebastian Vincent;
(2008)
Das modellierte Antlitz der Erde. Zur Geschichte der Modellierungsstrategien der Kontinentalverschiebung
(/isis/citation/CBB001211728/)
Article
McDougall, Ian;
(2013)
Retrospective on the Plate Tectonic Revolution Focusing on K/Ar Dating, Linear Volcanic Chains and the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale
(/isis/citation/CBB001213607/)
Article
Coode, Alan M.;
(2011)
Part of the History of the Origin of Transform Faults
(/isis/citation/CBB001232531/)
Book
Powell, James Lawrence;
(2001)
Mysteries of Terra Firma: The Age and Evolution of the World
(/isis/citation/CBB000101768/)
Article
Lilley, F. E. M.;
(2012)
Demonstrating That Continents Had Drifted: Paleomagnetic Measurements at the Australian National University, 1952--1964
(/isis/citation/CBB001232599/)
Article
Stefano Furlani;
Daniele Musumeci;
(2020)
Were the Continents Drifting before Continental Drift? Domenico Lovisato and the Role of Wegener’s Precursors in the Theory of Continental Drift
(/isis/citation/CBB181085373/)
Article
Alessandro Iannace;
(2019)
A three-step view for the history of geology
(/isis/citation/CBB447026128/)
Article
Bento Cavadas;
(2019)
From the contracting earth to continental drift: Wegener's influence on Portuguese and Spanish science textbooks through the twentieth century
(/isis/citation/CBB989804689/)
Thesis
Fowler, Philip A.;
(2005)
The Longitudinal Treatment and Structure of Plate Tectonics in Introductory College-Level Physical Geology Textbooks: 1974--2005
(/isis/citation/CBB001561674/)
Article
Everett, J. E.;
Smith, A. G.;
(2008)
Genesis of a Geophysical Icon: The Bullard, Everett and Smith Reconstruction of the Circum-Atlantic Continents
(/isis/citation/CBB000850785/)
Article
Anduaga, Aitor;
(2010)
Crustal Layering, Simplicity, and the Oil Industry: The Alteration of an Epistemic Paradigm by a Commercial Environment
(/isis/citation/CBB001024227/)
Book
Roman, Constantin;
(2000)
Continental Drift: Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures
(/isis/citation/CBB000110688/)
Article
Marvin, Ursula B.;
(2001)
Reflections on the American Rejection of Continental Drift
(/isis/citation/CBB000100406/)
Essay Review
Hallam, Tony;
(2014)
The Great Revolution in the Earth Sciences in the Mid-Twentieth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001566505/)
Chapter
Khain, Victor E.;
Ryabukhin, Anatoly G.;
(2002)
Russian Geology and the Plate Tectonics Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB000201706/)
Chapter
Laura Franchini;
(2016)
Il centenario della pubblicazione di "La formazione dei continenti e degli oceani" e le ricerche di Alfred Wegener durante la Prima Guerra Mondiale
(/isis/citation/CBB298977240/)
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