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Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences : From Heresy to Truth

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Title: Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences : From Heresy to Truth
Description: 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.
Authors: James Lawrence Powell
Resource Type: eBook.
Subjects: Geology--History, Geological time, Continental drift, Meteoritic hypothesis, Global warming
Categories: SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / General, SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / Geology, SCIENCE / History, SCIENCE / Time, SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / Sedimentology & Stratigraphy, SCIENCE / Global Warming & Climate Change
Database: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
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  – Type: ebook-epub
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Header DbId: nlebk
DbLabel: eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
An: 891680
RelevancyScore: 1057
AccessLevel: 6
PubType: eBook
PubTypeId: ebook
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  Data: Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences : From Heresy to Truth
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  Data: 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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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22James+Lawrence+Powell%22">James Lawrence Powell</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Geology--History%22">Geology--History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Geological+time%22">Geological time</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Continental+drift%22">Continental drift</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Meteoritic+hypothesis%22">Meteoritic hypothesis</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Global+warming%22">Global warming</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SCIENCE+%2F+Earth+Sciences+%2F+General%22">SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / General</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SCIENCE+%2F+Earth+Sciences+%2F+Geology%22">SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / Geology</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SCIENCE+%2F+History%22">SCIENCE / History</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SCIENCE+%2F+Time%22">SCIENCE / Time</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SCIENCE+%2F+Earth+Sciences+%2F+Sedimentology+%26+Stratigraphy%22">SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / Sedimentology & Stratigraphy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="ZK" term="%22SCIENCE+%2F+Global+Warming+%26+Climate+Change%22">SCIENCE / Global Warming & Climate Change</searchLink>
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        Type: prePub
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Geology--History
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Geological time
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Continental drift
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Meteoritic hypothesis
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Global warming
        Type: general
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      – TitleFull: Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences : From Heresy to Truth
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            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2014
            – D: 26
              M: 11
              Type: profile
              Y: 2014
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            – Type: isbn-print
              Value: 9780231164481
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              Value: 9780231538459
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Four Revolutions in the Earth Sciences : From Heresy to Truth
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