Re: "T-rex&theCommetofDoom"

["Allan Edels" <edels@email.msn.com>]

As I recall, Rainger's speciality is the history of science, so ihs
reviewing it from that perspective is to be expected.

    Allan Edels

-----Original Message-----
From: Ilja Nieuwland <I.J.J.Nieuwland@let.rug.nl>
To: dinosaur@usc.edu <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Date: Tuesday, September 22, 1998 11:11 AM
Subject: RE: "T-rex&theCommetofDoom"


>> Its really quite a good book.  Since its written by Alvarez, the
>> presentation is perhaps a bit one-sided, but he makes an honest effort to
>> review other viewpoints, especially the from the Dartmouth people.
Authors
>> who are busy doing real science tend to spend too much time on the
>> historical development of the idea, rather than the science itself,
because
>> its easier to write.  This book is no exception.  Still, this is a book
>> intended for the educated puiblic, not specialists.
>>
>[snipped]
>>   --Toby White
>
>One of the last issues of ISIS had a review of this book, which was
>quite positive. However, the reviewer (who I think was Ronald Rainger)
>treated it as an autobiographical account of a scientific quest (i.e.
>as an effort in the history of science, which is what ISIS is about),
>with all the advantages and disadvantages that go with that type of
>book, and in this respect I guess it's quite OK. I will gladly let
>others decide on its precise geological and paleobiological merits.
>Having said that, I am well aware that such an approach provides
>justification for blatant one-sidedness of argument (as it did with
>Dave Raup's The Nemesis Affair), and one should separate
>autobiography and scientific content, which in these cases is never
>easy.
>
>Ilja Nieuwland
>Groningen, NL
>