The Nemesis Affair: A Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and the Ways of Science - Softcover

Raup, David M.

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9780393023428: The Nemesis Affair: A Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and the Ways of Science

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393023427 ISBN 13: 9780393023428

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1986

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An examination of the theory of Nemesis, the death star which scientists predict will disrupt the orbits of billions of comets in a few million years, becomes an exploration of how science works and belief systems in science

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About the Author:

David M. Raup is the Sewell Avery Distinguished Service Professor and a statistical paleontologist at the University of Chicago.

From Library Journal:

In recounting the "Nemesis Affair," Raup aims to elucidate the scientific and journalistic climate in which the idea was born. The story begins with a 1980 paper in Science implicating impact of an extraterrestrial body with Earth as the cause of dinosaur extinction. It proceeds through the later hypothesis that mass extinctions are time-periodic and astrophysicists' suggestions (including "Nemesis," an undiscovered small companion star to our sun) to explain the periodicity. All the hypotheses are still under debate. Raup, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago and a participant in the "Nemesis Affair," is a clear-eyed and frank, if not completely unbiased, reporter. His book makes good reading for anyone curious about "Nemesis" or about science. Margery C. Coombs, Zoology Dept., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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