Book Description
The discovery of the giant Chicxulub impact crater, buried off the coast of Mexico, unveiled the solution to one of Earth's greatest mysteries--what killed the dinosaurs. Scientists uncovered physical evidence to explain the mass extinction that rocked the Earth 65 million years ago. Step-by-step, The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions tells this great scientific detective story. Charles Frankel recounts the birth of the cosmic hypothesis, which holds that the crash of a meteor on the Earth's surface killed two-thirds of life and all the dinosaurs. He first provides a dramatic account of the impact and its aftermath. Frankel then goes on to detail the controversy that preceded the acceptance of the cosmic hypothesis, the search for the crater, its discovery and ongoing exploration, and the effect of the giant impact on the biosphere. In addition, he reviews other mass extinctions in the fossil record and the threat of asteroids and comets to our planet today. More than 70 photographs and diagrams enhance and help illustrate the material. Filled with drama and interesting science, The End of the Dinosaurs will readily appeal to both the general reader fascinated with the subject and the specialist always searching for more clues to this great mystery. Charles Frankel has written a number of articles on the earth sciences in books and magazines. His many books include Volcanoes of the Solar System (Cambridge University Press 1996).
Customer Reviews:
An Excellent, Well-Written Thesis.......2007-07-11
Charles Frankel's book "The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions" is a well-written, thoroughly researched thesis on the theory of a meteor impact that resulted in the mass extinctions of dinosaurs and other species 65 million years ago.
The author requires no prior knowledge of geology, astronomy, archeology, or paleontology. Instead, he carefully outlines all of the accumulated scientific evidence from these fields of science and presents a convincing argument in support of the impact theory as the cause of the mass extinctions documented in the fossil record. He also presents opposing theories and his arguments against them. The book is nicely illustrated with interesting photographs that supplement the salient points of each chapter.
The book is an easy read, especially for a scientific thesis, and is constructed concisely and intuitively, without the repetitiveness often suffered in similar non-fiction works. I enjoyed reading it on vacation in the Caribbean where I was delighted to be able to spot, in some exposed cliffs, the K-T geologic boundary the author describes so well!
I later shared the book with my 14 year old son, who used the book as his primary resource for a school paper on the subject of an important historical event. My son also found the book to be fascinating, lucid, and eminently readable.
I highly recommend this outstanding work of non-fiction.
Informative and Entertaining.......2005-05-23
This book is an entertaining and informative explanation of how scientists posed the theory that an asteriod had caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, found evidence that supported the theory, searched for the crater, and eventually linked the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan Peninsula to the extinctions.
This book is also a wonderful illustration of how the scientific process works, what scientific controversy looks like, and how people from many different scientific disciplines can work together to advance knowledge. The author provides enough background information for the lay reader to understand the basic situation, but not so much that the reader gets bogged down in details. With a publication date of 1999, it is perhaps a bit dated, but it is well worth reading.
The End of the Dinosaurs.......2002-11-23
The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions written by Charles Frankel is an account of the hunt for, finding, and the theory and controversy assoicited with the great mass extinction that rocked the Earth 65 million years ago.
This book encompasses some great detective work and recounts the birth of the cosmic hypothesis that the effects of a giant impact created on the eart's biosphere led to the exticntion of one very successful life forms on earth... dinosauria.
The descriptions of the crater geology is in terms that the layperson can understand and comprehend. This is ment to pique your interest into Earth sciences and there is and index and bibliography for further study if warrented.
What I found to be the greatest asset in reading this book is the detective work involve in finding the impact area on earth that coinsided with the correct time frame to prove that the impact of an extraterresstial source was one of the contributing factors that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
There are photos within this book that show impacts throughout the earth, but the only one that can be linked to 65 millions years ago is Chicxulub in the Northern edge of the Yucatan in Mexico. It amazes me how the geologists work and came up with this site. Iridium was only one of the clues that the geologists used to track down the date of tthe impact, but closer to the impact site there were other telltale signs.
Around the Gulf of Mexico, unusual outcrops are found at the K-T boundary. K-T stands for Late Cretaceous-Tertiary begining. In El Penon, Mexico, a thick sandstone unit is interpreted to be a catastrophic tsunami deposit, laid down by the impact. Where it is capped by a fine clay displaying a wavy pattern, thought to mark the oscilation of the current as the tsunami wave sloshed back and forth across the continental platform. When you take a cross-section of the clay you can really see the the ripple marks, making testament to the current switching directions.
From Mexico, to Haiti and around the Gulf of Mexico you see this clay layer and sandstone around the K-T boundary denoting an impact, but what really piqued my interest here was the fine of the ejecta known as spherules and tektites. Tektites are spashes of the impact melt that take on aerodynamic shapes as they spin through the Earth's atmosphere.
On a different note... why are comet more dangerous to Earth than asteroid... because of the sublimation of the ices heated by sunlight. The jets of gas act as reactors and constantly modify the comet's trajectory. Thus, making comets less predictable than asteroids.
This book takes the reader on a journey into Earth Science and shows us what can happen... fascinating what asteroids, meteorites, bolides and comets can do to the rich complexity of the biosphere, not only then, but today as well.
Great Little Book.......2002-05-27
This great little book is far more than promised by the title -- although I must admit that I grabbed it because of the title, so I can hardly fault them for picking something dinosaur oriented.
Yes, we get a history of the scientific controversies leading to the widespread acceptance of a meteorite/comet strike as the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. But there's more: the book reviews the evidence for associations between bolide strikes and all of the major mass extinctions in earth history. In prose that's clear, but not dry, Frankel reveals what we know -- and don't know -- about these events. Good illustrations and intelligent speculation round out a first-rate and quite up-to-date overview of a rapidly developing field.
One subtext of Frankel's work is how scientist adapt (and in some cases don't adapt) to new evidence. For example, the Siberian Tunguska explosion of 1908 is now widely acknowledged to have been a strike from a comet fragment, but only 20 or so years ago you could read about it primarily in UFO magazines and "mysteries of the unexplained" books. Because science lacked an explanation for it, the explosion was largely ignored.
I second the recommendation of "The Eternal Frontier."
End of the Dinosaurs........2000-04-11
So many theories of the KT extinctions have been forwarded by scientist and lay person alike that it is almost refreshing to have it come down to the confrontation between two, or a few, major theories, in this case the "impactist" and "volcanist" theories. Frankel does a fine job of presenting a balanced and fair account of the contenting theories, particularly Courtillot's Deccan Traps volcanism (for which see Evolutionary Catastrophies or my review of it) and their supporting data. He is, however, thoroughly in the impactist camp. He gives an excellent description of the astroid and of how scientists were able to work out its size, the size of its crater, and its subsequent atmospheric and environmental effects. This is probably the best of the three books (T. Rex and the Crater of Doom, Evolutionary Catastrophies, and End of the Dinosaurs) I've recently read on the subject, although all three are worth reading.
Book Description
How did the larger dinosaurs run? How and why did they fight? The author applies laws of physics, mechanical engineering and aerodynamics to answer these and other questions.
Customer Reviews:
clear, concise, and compelling .......2005-09-09
This is one of the more powerful little books in science. The author elegantly describes such issues as how we can infer speed from footprints, a practical discussion of whether some dinosaurs were warm blooded, and other interesting topics. Most dinosaur books are either glorified picture books or narrative. This is a practical step by step discovery of "how we know what we know". This, and Random Walks in Biology, are the two best books of this type anywhere. As a biology teacher I've gotten a ton of good ideas and lessons out of this one.
A basic introduction to the problem.......2005-05-09
This book provides an excellent overview of the topic of how biomechanics can be applied to the behavior of extinct animals. It provides verbal examples of how to take the pieces that we have - skeletons, trackways, and other evidence, and from them be able to derive additional information about how the animal functioned. The book does not go into any detail on how this is actually carried out, there are no 'example problems' showing how to apply the physics, engineering, and mathematical methods to the problem. As such, it introduces the subject, but falls short of providing the information needed to apply what it describes. Use this book as an introduction to the study of extinct animals, but use another book to learn about how to actually apply the techniques.
One of my first introductions to biomechanics as a kid..........2004-12-02
Though some of the aspects of biomechanics and scaling that are addressed in this are somewhat simplified, I still find this to be an illuminating book. My father (an engineer) got this for me when it came out (I was 12) and it took me some years to get through it and understand what it was all about. I would certainly suggest it as an introduction to many of the issues modern functional morphology in vertebrate paleontology deals with. It is full of clever but simple ways tofigure things out, who can resist that?
Dinosaurs seen as engineering problems.......2001-11-08
A lot of things about dinosaurs (and other extinct large animals) we will never know. And a lot of questions are out there. Questions like "Could Tyrannosaurus rex run?", "What was their top speed?", "Did sauropods hold their neck horizontally or vertically?" or "Could large quadrupedal dinosaurs rear up on their hind legs?"
This book treats the animals that these questions are about as "nothing more" than engineering projects, similar to large buildings, bridges or mechanical machines.
Using realistic values for things like compressability and tensile stress properties of substances like bones, cartilage, tendons, etc. and using laws of physics and formulas from structural engineering Alexander tries to answer some of these questions.
The results are very interesting. If you're interesting in dinosaurs and how they really could have been in real life, this is a book you should not miss.
Book Description
What killed the dinosaurs? For more than a century, this question has been one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in science. But, in 1980, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Alvarez and his son, Walter, proposed a radical answer: 65 million years ago an asteroid or comet as big as Mt. Everest slammed into the earth, raising a dust cloud vast enough to cause mass extinction. A revolutionary idea that challenged the ice-age extinction theory, the asteroid-impact theory was scorned and derided by the science community. But after years of bitter debate and intense research, an astonishing discovery was made-an immense impact crater in the Yucatán Peninsula that was identified as Ground Zero. The Alvarezes had their proof. A dramatic scientific detective story, Night Comes to the Cretaceous is a brilliant example of science at work-in the trenches, complete with passionate struggles and occasional victories.
Customer Reviews:
Lack of objectivity. An embarassingly one-sided shill........2005-03-11
I was hoping for a balanced analysis supporting the dinosaur extinctions via an asteroid doing a number on mother earth. Instead I got a steady dose of denunciations towards anyone who disagreed with the asteroid theory. The tone is palatable at first but after a while repeating the same canard over and over does tend to get tiresome. Around page 170 or so I realized that I was reading an apologist for the asteroid theory.
I was very disappointed that other theories were given short shrift and at times almost mocked. This is a so so book about dinosaur extinctions but I am waiting for a truly meaty and balanced book.
A very clear account, but of questionable objectivity...........2005-02-08
I did't find this book to be a particularly good review of the dinosaurs-vs-meteorite controversy. The narrative is clear and captivating, and accounts of the several open (or closed!) disputes, rooted in disparate fields of Earth sciences, is made accessible to the layreader or those with just a modest background in natural sciences. Nevertheless, Powell holds a one-sided approach right from the beginning, pointlessly crusading against some supposedly general backward attitude in geologists and paleontologists that actually never was there, except for a very few unfortunate cases. Everyone now agrees on evidence for a massive extraterrestrial impact dated around 65 million years ago, but the main issue is presently whether that was the ultimate cause of the mass extinction or other earth-bound factors and feedbacks played a role in driving interactions between physical environment and the biosphere toward a mass extinction. Powell leaves no room for such developments.
In particular, I'd have two specific objections to specific cases presented in the book: 1)On pages 172-174 taxonomic analysis of dinosaur diversity in the highest stratigraphic stages of the Cretaceous in Montana is reported as evidence in favour of a sudden crisis of the original ecosystem. Pete Sheehan and co-workers carried on their studies at the taxonomic rank of families, which resulted numerically stable with time approaching the K-T boundary. Only, John Horner recently reviewed their work at a species level, likely to be statistically and biologically more reliable indicator of biodiversity, and found out a steady decrease of dinosaur types through time. Such reconsideration of Sheehan's research thus reverses evidence against the impact hypothesis! 2) The section "Did impact cause all extinctions?" introduces the final part of the book which has absolutely nothing to do with the K-T event per se, and presents us with Raup's "impact-kill curve" which was originally just an interesting exercise in statistics, but lacking a solid connection with the actual geo-paleontological database of major mass extinctions (let alone minor ones..) and thus oversimplifies the subject. Yet the author all too enthousiastically takes sides with the "impactors" and loses objectivity, even falling in contradiction (Page 192:"Not enough firm evidence is available to corroborate the claim that impact is responsible for any other mass extinction boundary than the K-T event..." Page 196:"..how are we to escape the conclusion that not just in theory, but in practice, impact has caused many extinctions?")
More poignantly however, scientific arguments and debates against the "impact hypothesis" haven't been introduced thoroughly enough but too quickly glossed over, although numerous in the recent scientific literature...
Without deceiving myself of having read a downright objective account, I'm afraid this is the best available book about the (still ongoing...) debate, together with J.D.Archibald's "Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say", which is possibly far more objective though...
A great description of science from the inside.......2004-08-07
This is one of the best science books I have ever read, and a great description of how science works from the inside. Scientists aren't impartial godlike figures, they're human beings just like the rest of us.This book details how a geologist, by bringing his father an interesting rock--a polished specimen that included the K-T boundary layer, deposited when the dinosaurs all vanished--started a controversy that revolutionized and redefined the entire field of earth sciences. Personally, I love it when that happens, that's how science is supposed to work, but people who have built their entire careers on the old view of things can have a very difficult time accepting a new paradigm, and will go to ludicrous extremes to defend the old one to their dying breath. The impact theory of extinctions is one of the scariest concepts I have ever come across, but I am a lot happier knowing how things really work. This is an utterly fascinating read, and I can't recommend it strongly enough. To anyone interested in geology, astronomy, dinosaurs, (who isn't interested in dinosaurs??), or the workings of science, I can only say---READ THIS BOOK!!!!
Night Comes to the Cretaceous.......2003-08-01
All in all, James Lawrence Powell did a superb job in writing this book. He is highly opinionated and interprets data in a manner to support his fundamental belief (that an asteroid caused the KT extinctions).
I advise readers to get a balanced view by also reading "The Great Dinosaur Extinction Controvery" by Charles Officer and Jack Page. I felt that Powell covered the topic very thoroughly and provided historical context to help the novice extinctions reader. I felt that the book was very weak in dicussing the paleontological aspects of the extinction. Next revision perhaps.
How Scientific Revolutions Actually Happen.......2003-06-13
One of the great scientific revolutions of our times has been the recognition that the biological evolution of Earth is influenced random impacts by comets and asteroids. When this concept was put forward in 1980, it was radical; today it is the accepted wisdom in paleontology, geology, and evolutionary biology. Jim Powell tells a fascinating story of the evidence for this transformation and of the scientists who have been protgonists in the struggle to understand this evidence and integrate it into our broader undestanding of our planet. This is one of the best books ever written to trace the history of a scientific controversy and of the people involved, warts and all.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from San Diego Business Journal, published by CBJ, L.P. on July 11, 1994. The length of the article is 1324 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: A San Diego giant goes way of the dinosaurs. (General Dynamics Corp. Convair Division)
Author: Larry M. Edwards
Publication:
San Diego Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 11, 1994
Publisher: CBJ, L.P.
Volume: v15
Issue: n28
Page: p4(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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The Chemistry of Enamines (Cambridge Texts in Chemistry and Biochemistry)
S. F. Dyke
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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ASIN: 0521097312 |
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The Chemistry of Enamines (Chemistry of Functional Groups)
Manufacturer: Wiley
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ASIN: 0471933392 |
Book Description
International contributors present papers concerned with the structural, theoretical and synthetic properties of enamines which act as important intermediates in many syntheses of organic compounds containing oxygen. Cycloaddition reactions, electrochemistry, hydrolysis and biochemistry of enamines; enediamines; and metalated enamines are among the topics discussed.
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Enamines
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ASIN: 0824777646 |
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Enamine chemistry (Arkiv for kemi)
Gustav Schroll
Manufacturer: Almqvist and Wiksell
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