Of Asteroids and Dinosaurs: The Role of the Press in the Shaping of Scientific Debate

Social Studies of Science

Volumn 16, Issue 3, 1986, Pages 421-456

  Clemens, Elisabeth S ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84972605487     PISSN: 03063127     EISSN: 14603659     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030631286016003002     Document Type: Article

References (168)

1. Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1970.
2. The Essential Tension (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1977).
3. Imre Lakatos, The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978).
4. Larry Laudan, Progress and its Problems: Towards a Theory of Scientific Growth (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1978).
5. Robert K. Merton, The Sociology of Science (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973), 267–78, at 270.
6. T.F. Gieryn, ‘Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of Scientists’, American Sociological Review, Vol. 48 (1983), 781–95.
7. Luis Alvarez, Walter Alvarez, Frank Asaro and Helen V. Michel, ‘Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction: Experimental Results and Theoretical intererpretation’, Science, Vol. 208 (6 June 1980), 1095–108.
8. Karl W. Flessa. ‘Extinction is Here to Stay’, Paleobiology, Vol. 9, No. 4 (1983), 315–21, at 315.
9. M. R. Rampino and R. B. Stothers, ‘Terrestrial Mass Extinctions, Cometary Impacts and the Sun's Motion Perpendicular to the Galactic Plane’, Nature, Vol. 308 (19 April 1984), 709–12.
10. R. D. Schwartz and P. B. James, ‘Periodic Mass Extinctions and the Sun's Oscillation about the Galactic Plane’, Nature, 712–13.
11. D. P. Whitmire and A. A. Jackson, ‘Are Periodic Mass Extinctions Driven by a Distant Solar Companion?’ Nature, 713–15.
12. M. Davis, P. Hut and R. A. Muller, ‘Extinction of Species by Periodic Comet Showers’, Nature, 715–17.
13. ‘Expository Practice: Social, Cognitive and Epistemological Linkag’, in Terry Shinn and Richard Whitley (eds), Expository Science: Forms and Functions of Popularisation (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1985), 31–60, at 32.
14. Steven Shapin, ‘History of Science and its Sociological Reconstructions’, History of Science, Vol. 20 (1982), 157–211, at 159.
15. Kuhn, History of Science, note 1, 42.
16. Paul M. Hirsch, ‘Processing Fads and Fashions: An Organization-Set Analysis of Cultural Industry Systems’, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 77 (1972), 639–59.
17. R. J. Richards, ‘Natural Selection and Other Models in the Historiography of Science’, in M. Brewer and B. Collins (eds), Scientific Inquiry and the Social Sciences: A Volume in Honor of Donald T. Campbell (San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 1981), 37–76.
18. G. N. Gilbert and M. Mulkay, Opening Pandora's Box: A Sociological Analysis of Scientists' Discourse (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), Chapter 3.
19. Dorothy E. Smith, ‘Textually Mediated Social Organization’, International Social Science Journal, Vol. 36 (1984), 59–75, at 59.
20. Timothy Lenoir, ‘Quantitative Foundations for the Sociology of Science: On Linking Blockmodelling with Co-Citation Analysis’, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 9 (1979), 455–80.
21. David Bloor, Wittgenstein: A Social Theory of Knowledge (London: Macmillan; New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 139–41.
22. Barry Barnes and David Edge (eds), Science in Context: Readings in the Sociology of Science (Milton Keynes, Bucks: Open University Press; Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1982), 66.
23. Karin Knorr-Cetina, ‘Scientific Communities or Transepistemic Arenas of Research? A Critique of Quasi-Economic Models of Science’, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 12(1982), 101–30, at 102.
24. Bloor, Social Studies of Science, note 12, 42.
25. Barry Barnes, ‘On the Conventional Character of Knowledge and Cognition’, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Vol. 11 (1981), 303–33.
26. Jorge Larrain, The Concept of Ideology (Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1979).
27. Pierre Bourdieu, ‘The Specificity of the Scientific Field’, in Charles Lemert (ed.), French Sociology: From Rupture to Renewal (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), 257–92, at 264.
28. Sara Genuth, ‘Comets, Teleology and the Relationship of Chemistry to Cosmology in Newton's Thought’, Annali dell' Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze, Vol. 10, Part 2 (1985), 31–65.
29. Donald Goldsmith (ed.), Scientists Confront Velikovsky (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1977).
30. W. Alvarez, E. G. Kauffman, F. Surlyk, L. Alvarez, F. Asaro and H. V. Michel, ‘Impact Theory of Mass Extinctions and the Invertebrate Fossil Record’, Science, Vol. 223 (16 March 1984), 1135–41, at 1135.
31. Harold C. Urey, ‘Cometary Collisions and Geological Periods’, Nature, Vol. 242 (2 March 1973), 32–33.
32. K. D. Terry and W. H. Tucker, ‘Biological Effects of Supernovae’, Science, Vol. 159 (26 January 1968), 421–23, at 421.
33. D. Russell and Tucker, ‘Supernovae and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs’, Nature, Vol. 229 (19 February 1971), 553–54.
34. Russell and Tucker, Nature, 553.
35. H. Laster, ‘Cosmic Rays from Nearby Supernovae: Biological Effects’, Science, Vol. 160(7 June 1968), 1138.
36. Norman D. Newell, ‘Mass Extinction: Unique or Recurrent Causes?’, in W. A. Berggren and John A. Van Couvering (eds), Catastrophes and Earth History: The New Uniformitarianism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 115–27, at 125.
37. Digby McClaren, ‘Impacts that Changed the Course of Evolution’, New Scientist, Vol. 100 (24 November 1983), 588–95, at 588.
38. Stephen Jay Gould, ‘Toward the Vindication of Punctuational Change’, in Berggren and Van Couvering (eds), New Scientist, note 25, 9–34, at 31.
39. Gould, New Scientist, 15–16.
40. N. Eldridge and S. J. Gould, ‘Punctuated Equilibria: An Alternative to Phyletic Gradualism’, in T. M. J. Schopf (ed.), Models in Paleobiology (San Francisco, Calif.: Freeman, Cooper, 1972), 82–115.
41. John R. Griesemer, Communication and Scientific Change: An Analysis of Conceptual Maps in the Macroevolution Controversy (unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 1983).
42. Gould, Communication and Scientific Change: An Analysis of Conceptual Maps in the Macroevolution Controversy note 26, 29.
43. Alvarez et al., Communication and Scientific Change: An Analysis of Conceptual Maps in the Macroevolution Controversy note 2.
44. Antoni Hoffman and Matthew H. Nitecki, ‘Reception of the Asteroid Hypothesis of Terminal Cretaceous Extinctions’, Geology, Vol. 13 (December 1985), 884–87.
45. D. Russell, ‘The Mass Extinctions of the Late Mesozoic’, Scientific American, Vol. 246, No. 1 (January 1982), 58–65, at 61.
46. Alvarez et al., Scientific American, note 2, 1098.
47. Alvarez et al., Scientific American. note 2, 1102.
48. R. Ganapathy, ‘A Major Meteorite Impact on the Earth 65 Million Years Ago: Evidence from the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Clay’, Science, Vol. 209 (22 August 1980), 921–23, at 921.
49. L. Alvarez, ‘Experimental Evidence that an Asteroid Impact Led to the Extinction of Many Species 65 Million Years Ago’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 80 (January 1983), 627–42, at 632.
50. Steven M. Stanley, ‘Temperature and Biotic Crises in the Marine Realm’, Geology, Vol. 12 (April 1984), 205–08.
51. Leigh M. Van Valen, ‘Catastrophes, Expectations and the Evidence’, Paleobiology, Vol. 10, No. 1 (1984), 121–37.
52. J. Smit and J. Hertogen, ‘An Extraterrestrial Event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary’, Nature, Vol. 285 (22 May 1980), 198–203.
53. K. Hsü, ‘Terrestrial Catastrophe Caused by Cometary Impact at the End of Cretaceous’, Nature, 201–03.
54. Newell, Nature, note 25, 125.
55. Alvarez et al., Nature, note 2, 1095.
56. Alvarez, Nature, note 35, 636.
57. Stephen Jay Gould, ‘Sex Drugs and the Extinction of Dinosaurs’, Discover (March 1984), 67–72, at 67.
58. World Press Review (December 1983), 16.
59. T. Birkelund and E. Hakansson, ‘The Terminal Cretaceous Extinction in Boreal Shelf Seas' A Multicausal Event’, in L. T. Silver and P. H. Schultz (eds), Geological Implications of Impacts of Large Asteroids and Comets on the Earth, Geological Society of America, Special Paper 190 (1982), 373–84, at 383.
60. W. A. Clemens, J. D. Archibald and L. J. Hickey, ‘Out with a Whimper not a Bang’, Paleobiology, Vol. 7, No. 3 (1981), 293–98, at 296.
61. L. Van Valen and R. E. Sloan, ‘Ecology and Extinction of Dinosaurs’, Evolutionary Theory, Vol. 2(1977), 37–64.
62. Alvarez et al., Evolutionary Theory, note 2, 1106.
63. Clemens et al., Evolutionary Theory, note 44, 295.
64. Alvarez et al., Evolutionary Theory, note 2, 1095.
65. J. M. Luck and K. K. Turekian, ‘Osmium-187/Osmium-186 in Manganese Nodules and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary’, Science, Vol. 222 (11 November 1983), 613–15, at 613.
66. Ganapathy, Science, note 34, 921.
67. Alvarez et al., Science, note 2, 1099.
68. Luck and Turekian, Science, note 48.
69. A. A. Bray, ‘Will Impacts Become Extinct?’, Modern Geology, Vol. 9 (1985), 397–409.
70. W. H. Zoller, J. R. Parrington and J. P. Kotra, ‘iridium Enrichment in Airborne Particles from Kilauea Volcano: January 1983’, Science, Vol. 222 (9 December 1983), 1118–21, at 1118.
71. D. J. DePaolo, F. T. Kyte, B. D. Marshall, J. R. O'Neil and J. Smit, ‘Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, K-Ca, ‘O’, and H Isotopic Study of Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Sediments, Caravaca, Spain: Evidence for an Oceanic Impact Site’, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 64 (1983), 356–73.
72. J. S. Gilmore, J. D. Knight, C. J. Orth, C. L. Pillmore and R. H. Tschudy, ‘Trace Element Patterns at a Non-Marine Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary’, Nature, Vol. 307 (19 January 1984), 224–28.
73. G. R. McGhee, Gilmore, Orth and E. Olsen, ‘No Geochemical Evidence for an Asteroidal Impact at Late Devonian Mass Extinction Horizon’, Nature, Vol. 308 (12 April 1984), 629–31.
74. A. Montanari, R. L. Hay, W. Alvarez, F. Asaro, H. V. Michel and L. Alvarez, ‘Spheroids at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary are Altered Impact Droplets of Basaltic composition’, Geology, Vol. 11 (November 1983), 668–71.
75. B. F. Bohor, E. E. Foord, P. J. Modreski and D. M. Triplehorn, ‘Mineralogic Evidence for an Impact Event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary’, Science, Vol. 224 (25 May 1984), 867–69.
76. D. E. Brownlee, B. A. Bates and M. M. Wheelock, ‘Extraterrestrial Platinum Group Nuggets in Deep-Sea Sediments’, Nature, Vol. 309(21 June 1984), 693–95.
77. G. Keller, S. D'Hondt and T. L. Vallier, ‘Multiple Microtektite Horizons in Upper Eocene Marine Sediments: No Evidence for Mass Extinctions’, Science, Vol. 221 (8 July 1983), 150–52.
78. M. R. Rampino and R. C. Reynolds, ‘Clay Mineralogy of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Clay,’ Science, Vol. 219 (4 February 1983), 495–98.
79. Bevan M. French, ‘Introduction’, in French and N. M. Short (eds), Shock Metamorphism of Natural Materials (Baltimore, Md: Mono Books, 1968), 1–17, at 1.
80. R. A. F. Grieve, ‘Physical Evidence of Impact’, Nature, Vol. 310 (2 August 1984), 370.
81. L. J. Hickey, ‘Changes in the Angiosperm Flora across the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary’, in Berggren and Van Couvering (eds), Nature, note 25, 279–313.
82. R. H. Tschudy, C. L. Pillmore, J. S. Gilmore and J. D. Knight, ‘Disruption of the Terrestrial Plant Exosystem at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary, Western Interior’, Science, Vol. 225 (7 September 1984), 1030–32.
83. C. B. Officer and C. L. Drake, ‘The Cretaceous-Tertiary Transition’, Science, Vol. 219 (25 March 1983), 1383–90, at 1383.
84. W. Alvarez, L. Alvarez, F. Asaro and H. V. Michel, ‘The End of the Cretaceous: Sharp Boundary or Gradual Transition?’, Science, Vol. 223 (16 March 1984), 1183–86, at 1184.
85. Alvarez et al., Science, note 2, 1102.
86. Alvarez, Science, note 35, 638.
87. Alvarez et al., Science, note 59.
88. Alvarez, Science, note 35, 632.
89. W. Alvarez, E. G. Kauffman, F. Surlyk, L. W. Alvarez, F. Asaro and H. Michel, ‘Impact Theory of Mass Extinctions and the Invertebrate Fossil Record’, Science, Vol. 223 (16 March 1984), 1135–41, at 1135.
90. D. M. Raup and J. J. Sepkoski, ‘Mass Extinctions in the Marine Fossil Record’, Science, Vol. 215 (19 March 1982), 1501–13, at 1502.
91. Raup and Sepkoski, ‘Periodicity of Extinctions in the Geologic Past’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 81 (February 1984), 801–05.
92. Raup and Sepkoski (1982), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, note 63, 1502.
93. Raup and Sepkoski (1984), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, note 63, 801.
94. Alvarez, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, note 35, 638.
95. Van Valen, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, note 36, 136.
96. Donald Levine, ‘The Forms and Functions of Social Knowledge’, in D. W. Fiske and R. A. Shweder (eds), Metatheory in Social Science: Pluralisms and Subjectivities (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986), 271–83.
97. Rampino and Stothers, Metatheory in Social Science: Pluralisms and Subjectivities, note 4.
98. Schwartz and James, Metatheory in Social Science: Pluralisms and Subjectivities, note 4.
99. Whitmire and Jackson, Metatheory in Social Science: Pluralisms and Subjectivities, note 4.
100. Davis, Hut and Muller, Metatheory in Social Science: Pluralisms and Subjectivities, note 4.
101. W. Alvarez and R. A. Muller, ‘Evidence from Crater Ages for Periodic Impacts on the Earth’, Nature, Vol. 308 (19 April 1984), 718–20.
102. J. A. Kitchell and D. Pena, ‘Periodicity of Extinctions in the Geologic Past: Determinist Versus Stochastic Explanations’, Science, Vol. 226 (9 November 1984), 689–92.
103. S. M. Stigler, ‘Mass Extinction Times and Correlations’, Nature, Vol. 314(18 April 1985), 586.
104. Alvarez et al., Nature, note 2, 1102.
105. A. V. Dhondt, ‘Campanian and Maastrictian Inoceramids: A Review’, Zitteliana, Vol. 10 (1 July 1983), 689–701.
106. S. M. Stanley, ‘Mass Extinctions in the Ocean’, Scientific American, Vol. 248, No. 6 (June 1984), 64–72.
107. C. Teichart, Letters, Geotimes (January 1984), 4.
108. Van Valen, Geotimes, note 36, 121.
109. Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (London: Hutchinson, 1959), 27.
110. Merton, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, note 1, 19.
111. Chandra Mukerji, From Graven Images: Patterns of Modern Materialism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983).
112. Walter W. Powell, Getting into Print: The Decision-Making Process in Scholarly Publishing(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985); Smith, From Graven Images: Patterns of Modern Materialism, note 10.
113. Alvarez, Getting into Print: The Decision-Making Process in Scholarly Publishing, note 35, 629.
114. Gilbert and Mulkay, Getting into Print: The Decision-Making Process in Scholarly Publishing, note 9, 56.
115. Van Valen, Getting into Print: The Decision-Making Process in Scholarly Publishing, note 36, 121.
116. Frederick Suppe, The Structure of Scientific Theories (Urbana, 111.: University of Illinois Press, 1977), 53–56.
117. L. H. Kern, H. L. Mirelsand V. G. Hinshaw, ‘Scientists' Understanding of Propositional Logic: An Experimental Investigation’, Social Studies of Science, Vol. 13 (1983), 131–46, at 131.
118. R. Jastrow, ‘The Dinosaur Massacre: A Double-Barreled Mystery’, Science Digest (September 1983), 151–53+, at 52.
119. Officer and Drake, Science Digest, note 58, 1383.
120. S. J. Gould, ‘Continuity’, Natural History (April 1984), 10 (italics added).
121. Alvarez, Natural History, note 35, 627.
122. J. D. Archibald and W. A. Clemens, ‘Late Cretaceous Extinctions’, American Scientist, Vol. 70 (July-August 1982), 377–84.
123. Luck and Turekian, American Scientist, note 48.
124. Officer and Drake, American Scientist, note 58.
125. Officer and Drake, American Scientist, note 58.
126. Stanley, American Scientist, note 36.
127. Zoller et al., American Scientist, note 52.
128. Van Valen, American Scientist, note 36.
129. Alvarez et al., American Scientist, note 62.
130. Alvarez et al., American Scientist, note 59.
131. Erle Kauffman, ‘The Fabric of Cretaceous Marine Extinctions’, in Berggren and Van Couvering (eds), American Scientist, note 25, 151–246, at 159.
132. Daniel E. Koshland, Jr, ‘A New Feature in Science’, Science, Vol. 228 (10 May 1985), 667.
133. Stephen Cole, Jonathan R. Cole and Gary A. Simon, ‘Chance and Consensus in Peer Review’, Science, Vol. 214 (20 November 1981), 881–86.
134. Malcolm W. Browne, ‘Dinosaur Experts Resist Meteor Extinction Idea: Paleontologists say Dissenters Risk Harm to Their Careers’, The New York Times (29 October 1985), 21–22.
135. Hoffman and Nitecki, The New York Times, note 31, 885.
136. Browne, The New York Times, note 92, 22.
137. ‘Miscasting the Dinosaur's Horoscope’, The New York Times (2 April 1985), A26.
138. ‘The Nemesis of Nemesis’, The New York Times. (7 July 1985).
139. The New York Times Magazine (24 March 1985), 34–46+, at 34.
140. Antoni Hoffman, ‘Patterns of Family Extinction Depend on Definition and Geological Timescale’, Nature, Vol. 315 (20 June 1985), 659–62.
141. John Maddox, ‘Periodic Extinctions Undermined’, Science 627.
142. Lewin, Science, Vol. 230 (4 October 1985), 8.
143. Roger Lewin, ‘Extinctions and the History of Life’, Science, Vol. 221 (2 September 1983), 935–37.
144. Koshland, Science note 91.
145. Joseph Ben-David, cited in Shapin, Science note 6, 157.
146. Graham Allison, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1971).
147. James G. Marsh and Johan P. Olsen, Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations (Bergen: Universitetsforlaget, 1976).
148. John Steinbruner, The Cybernetic Theory of Decision (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974).
149. Gould, The Cybernetic Theory of Decision, note 42, 67.
150. B. Gastel, Presenting Science to the Public (Philadelphia: IS1 Press, 1983).
151. R. Goodell, The Visible Scientists (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1977.
152. J. Goodfield, Reflections on Science and the Media (Washington, DC: AAAS, 1981).
153. Gastel, Reflections on Science and the Media, note 101, 30–32.
154. Suppe, Reflections on Science and the Media, note 81, 53–56.
155. N. L. Maull, ‘Unifying Science without Reduction’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Vol. 8, No. 2 (1977), 143–62.
156. J. Maddox, ‘Extinctions by Catastrophe?’, Nature, Vol. 308 (19 April 1984), 685.
157. D. M. Raup and J. J. Sepkoski, Letter, Nature, Vol. 309 (24 May 1984), 300.
158. Russell, Nature, note 32, 65.
159. Alvarez et al., Nature, note 62, 1135.
160. Shapin, Nature, note 6, 165.
161. Goodell, Nature, note 101, 206.
162. Gould, Nature, note 42, 72.
163. R. P. Turco, O. B. Toon, T. P. Ackerman, J. B. Pollack and C. Sagan, ‘Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions’, Science, Vol. 222 (23 December 1983), 1283–92.
164. J. Maddox, ‘Nuclear Winter Not Yet Established’, Nature, Vol. 308 (1 March 1984), 11.
165. Goodell, Nature, note 101, 36–32; 29–31.
166. Alvarez, Nature, note 35, 632.
167. John E. Schowalter, ‘Children's Fascination with Dinosaurs’, Children Today, Vol. 8 (May-June 1979), 2–5.
168. Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972).