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About this book
Written in sync with a growing trend toward teaching geosciences from an interdisciplinary perspective, the text teaches students what science is by using the prism of contemporary earth science. |A thorough survey of the major theories in 20th-century earth sciences shows students how scientific theory works: how theories were developed, were argued, tested and accepted.
Contents
The scientific method - an empirical but deeply human undertaking; the spectrum of the sciences; Neptune versus the fires of hell - the dynamic cycle of minerals and rocks; uniformitarianism and gradualism - geologyOs shifting foundations; catastrophism revived - the example of pleistocene outburst flooding; gradualism strikes back - drifting continents and plate tectonics; a huge gap in gradualism - the genesis of life on Earth; the fossil record - a biased but rich record of the history of life; Darwin and beyond - the continuing debate about the origin of species; mass extinctions - triumph for catastrophism? creation science versus the historical sciences - the debate and the law; methodological limitations revisited. Appendices: the fact versus value distinction; terminology from lifeOs history; the vocabulary of geologic time; how to construct a technical definition.
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