Abstract
Michael Leddra presents an interesting account of the history of geologic time in his book Time Matters: Geology’s Legacy to Scientifc Thought. Leddra makes a compelling case for the importance of understanding the history of all sciences, not just geologic time, as he outlines the humanity and contemporary constraints that influence the practice of the scientific method. The author writes cogently about the social influences of religion (George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, publishing age estimates of the Earth at 3,000 years while his unpublished work indicates estimates of 3 million years), industry (Abraham Gottlob Werner developed rock classifications to aid in the prediction of industrial mineral and or rock location), as well as politics, egos, popular opinion, and more recently, popular media. Discussions about how such debates as Plutonism versus Neptunism (chapter 4), uniformitarianism versus catastrophism (chapter 5), evolution versus creationism (chapter 7), and continental drift and plate tectonics (chapter 8) have been resolved through time, however, demonstrates the eventual balance of the scientific method.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1 |
| Number of pages | 1 |
| Journal | Palaios |
| Publication status | Published - 2012 |