Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Where do physicists gain the self-assurance to make pronounce-
ments in a field in which they have little or no training and experi-
ence? Walter Alvarez has observed that science is a hierarchy from
the sophisticated and mathematical to the complex and nonmathe-
matical.
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The order runs, roughly: mathematics, physics, chemistry,
astronomy, geology, paleontology, biology, psychology, and sociology.
Fields high in the hierarchy use mathematics to explain the laws
that they have derived. Though the discovery of these laws may
require great feats of intellect, the laws themselves can often be sim-
ply stated (£ =
mc
2
).
Fields lower down deal with history, life, the
human brain and behavior, which cannot be described mathema-
tically or simply (with a few exceptions, such as plate tectonics). Sci-
entists in these fields must handle (literally) dirty rocks and messy,
squishy things like whole organisms. Physicists expect that someday
they will be able to roll everything into one grand unified theory;
scientists from geology "on down" would scarcely dream of such an
aspiration. All this translates into a false sense of superiority on the
part of those at or near the top of the hierarchy and gives them,
seemingly without a moment of doubt, the nerve to make pro-
nouncements about the fields below them. Ironically, in his article
Jastrow acknowledged this hierarchy, but he failed to consider that
it might apply not only to Luis Alvarez, but to himself.
Of course, as with other forms of prejudice, such attitudes are
wrong, even dangerous. Mathematics is not "better" than psychol-
ogy; it is merely different. Not every physicist could be a successful
biologist. Just as we are finding that different kinds of intelligence
exist, so each field probably attracts those most amenable to its spe-
cial set of problems, techniques, and ways of thinking.
At the time of Luis's talk at the National Academy, plant pale-
ontologist Leo Hickey was arguing that the plant extinction had
been moderate and had occurred at a different time than the dino-
saur extinction. After describing Hickey as a "very good friend" and
a "close personal friend" of Walter Alvarez, Luis said that "Hickey
has behaved quite differently with respect to the [Raton basin fern
spike] ... he ignored it."
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Alvarez directed most of his disdain at William Clemens, the
vertebrate paleontologist and faculty colleague of Walter Alvarez,
whom Luis also described in his talk as a friend. Their difference
centered on the interval between the K-T boundary at Hell Creek,
Montana, and the highest recovered dinosaur bone, which occurred
at some distance below the boundary, producing a barren interval
that became known as the "ghastly 3-m gap." Luis Alvarez describes
in great detail how he used a variety of techniques to convince
