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September 25, 2006
Part I: Asking the Right Questions
Chapter 5: Tongues of Stone
Alan Cutler
Smithsonian Instituition
17 min. (slideshow requires QCShow Player)
Audio only (mp3 format)
View as a webpage (quicktime, real player) (notes)
The scientists at the end of the 19th century had people coming to them with this weird behaviour, and they didn't know what was going on but there seemed to be a similarity. They needed an answer, so they made up one.
— Chester Brown
The admonition, "Seek, and ye shall find," appears twice in the Christian New Testament, once in Matthew (7:7) and again in Luke (11:9).
Unfortunately, the problem with the advice is that once you ask a question, it's human nature that you're virtually guaranteed of finding an answer, regardless of whether or not it has any validity.
The form of methodological science we practice today has its roots in the 1600's. This was broadly the time of Bruno and Galileo, Copernicus and Newton. It was also the era of Nicholas Steno, a much lesser known figure, but who is now widely regarded as the father of modern geology.
A simple question was asked at the time: How could a seashell get into a rock? And how could that rock get to the top of a mountain? The "seashell question" was a small, nagging irritant to those who fervently believed the planet was young and the human race supreme. Complex, intellectually satisfying answers to the question were unfortunately not rare.
Answering the question correctly unintentionally spurred a scientific, religious, and philosophical revolution that now underlies almost everything we know concerning geophysics and geology.
The man who provided the proper answer to this question was a renown Danish anatomist, Nicolaus Steno. Through serendipity and the sheer dint of intellectual curiosity, Steno introduced the study of geology and the idea of "deep time," a concept radically contrary to the prevailing Judeo-Christian belief, which firmly held that the world was a mere 6,000 years old.
Steno's answer to a rather prosaic question, understanding the true nature of glossopetrae (literally "tonguestones"), led to the implication that the world was far older.
This lecture is different from the others presented in this series. Alan Cutler, a paleobiologist affliated with the Smithsonian, has written a very well received book on the life and scientific journey of Nicholas Steno, The Seashell on the Mountaintop, a book often compared to Dava Sobel's Longitude.
This lecture is an experiment. It was adapted from a Highbridge audiobook version of Cutler's book to demonstrate the feasibility of an audiographic book format for viewing on computers and iPods, a illustrated book format somewhat equivalent to a PBS Nova show, but capable of being produced far more inexpensively.
— Wirt Atmar
About the Speaker
Alan Cutler has a Ph.D. in geosciences and has taught and written about geology and the natural sciences for over twenty years. He was a contributing editor to Forces of Change: A New View of Nature, a joint publication of the Smithsonian and the National Geographic Society, and his writing has also appeared in The Washington Post, Science magazine, and other publications. He is a Research Associate in the Department of Paleobiology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland, with his wife and two children.
Seashell on the Mountaintop was a Summer 2003 pick for Barnes and Noble's Discover Great New Writers program.
Alan once responded to an interviewer's question, "I've never been able to answer the question, 'How did you become interested in science?' I'm tempted to turn the question around: How do people become uninterested in science? As a child I was curious about everything. With my friends I explored the woods near our home, caught bugs and frogs and turtles, and looked at the moon with binoculars. Naturally, I was fascinated by dinosaurs, too. To be curious about the natural world seemed normal to me then, and it seems normal to me now. I figure that for most people the curiosity is still there somewhere, even if its been dormant for years. My hope in writing about science is to connect with that curiosity and reawaken it if I can."
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