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Incoming!: Or, Why We Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Meteorite
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 4, 2014
Hardly anyone seems to have read this book, and it has a stupid title and a stupid cover. It seemed reasonable to assume that the content would be stupid too, but in the event I was pleasantly surprised; it turns out to be an elegant little study of how the scientific process works in a practical case. The author, a geologist, seems to know a great deal about meteoritics, and he does a fine job of explaining the tangled story. He is particularly good at finding odd connections: the historical figures who end up with unexpected walk-on parts include Emma Hamilton, Laurence Sterne and the Emperor Heliogabalus, and there are some cute literary and artistic references (Dürer was my favorite).
The book is divided into three sections. In the first one, the author gives a general overview of the subject and a tour of its early history. It is quite astonishing to see how resistant Western scientists were to the idea that stones could fall out of the sky, despite the fact that they plainly did so from time to time. In 1794, for example, many meteorites fell in Siena. They were witnessed by all sorts of people, including members of the Scientific Academy; but the majority explanation, at least at first, was that they must have come from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius the day before, although Vesuvius lay 320 km south of Siena, the stones looked nothing like volcanic ejecta, and everyone agreed that they had come from the north. When you're sure something's not there, it's very hard to see it.
The second section focuses on the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Chicxulub crater. I had read about this several times before, for example in Frankel's The End of the Dinosaurs, but has not understood how complicated it was. Frankel paints a straightforward picture, unambiguously identifying the meteorite as the cause of the end-Cretaceous extinction event and suggesting that the other major extinction events in the geological record were similar. Here, I find that it's rather less clear. There is no strong evidence to show that any other great extinction is meteorite-related, and even Chicxulub is far from a slam-dunk. One carefully conducted series of studies appears to show that the meteorite impact predates the extinction by as much as 300,000 years. It seems entirely possible that the real story involved a combination of causes, most likely including massive volcanic activity and maybe other things too.
In the third section, there's a meteorite story I'd never even seen before. In the Ordovician period, a bit more than 450 million years ago, there's a well-documented part of the fossil record called the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Apparently there are suddenly a lot more different kinds of brachiopods. There's also good evidence of much higher levels of meteorite activity around then. It doesn't seem impossible that there's a causal link here too: maybe regular meteorite impacts kept opening up new ecological niches, shuffling the evolutionary pack faster so that more hands could be played in the same time. A formula which was lethal for dinosaurs choking on volcanic fumes might have been good news for brachiopods in warm, shallow seas. It's an intriguing idea.
In each part, you see that the core message is roughly the same: we don't know as much as we think we do, weigh the evidence carefully, don't trust the currently fashionable explanations too much. It makes a nice change from the absurdly overconfident pronouncements typical of today's popular science books. This is a classy piece of work.
The book is divided into three sections. In the first one, the author gives a general overview of the subject and a tour of its early history. It is quite astonishing to see how resistant Western scientists were to the idea that stones could fall out of the sky, despite the fact that they plainly did so from time to time. In 1794, for example, many meteorites fell in Siena. They were witnessed by all sorts of people, including members of the Scientific Academy; but the majority explanation, at least at first, was that they must have come from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius the day before, although Vesuvius lay 320 km south of Siena, the stones looked nothing like volcanic ejecta, and everyone agreed that they had come from the north. When you're sure something's not there, it's very hard to see it.
The second section focuses on the extinction of the dinosaurs and the Chicxulub crater. I had read about this several times before, for example in Frankel's The End of the Dinosaurs, but has not understood how complicated it was. Frankel paints a straightforward picture, unambiguously identifying the meteorite as the cause of the end-Cretaceous extinction event and suggesting that the other major extinction events in the geological record were similar. Here, I find that it's rather less clear. There is no strong evidence to show that any other great extinction is meteorite-related, and even Chicxulub is far from a slam-dunk. One carefully conducted series of studies appears to show that the meteorite impact predates the extinction by as much as 300,000 years. It seems entirely possible that the real story involved a combination of causes, most likely including massive volcanic activity and maybe other things too.
In the third section, there's a meteorite story I'd never even seen before. In the Ordovician period, a bit more than 450 million years ago, there's a well-documented part of the fossil record called the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Apparently there are suddenly a lot more different kinds of brachiopods. There's also good evidence of much higher levels of meteorite activity around then. It doesn't seem impossible that there's a causal link here too: maybe regular meteorite impacts kept opening up new ecological niches, shuffling the evolutionary pack faster so that more hands could be played in the same time. A formula which was lethal for dinosaurs choking on volcanic fumes might have been good news for brachiopods in warm, shallow seas. It's an intriguing idea.
In each part, you see that the core message is roughly the same: we don't know as much as we think we do, weigh the evidence carefully, don't trust the currently fashionable explanations too much. It makes a nice change from the absurdly overconfident pronouncements typical of today's popular science books. This is a classy piece of work.
March 31, 2014
What was the publisher thinking of? Dead set, this book is actually called Incoming!: Or, why we should stop worrying and learn to love the meteorite. Maybe Hoyle was right, maybe we are ruled by extra-terrestrial sentient cockroaches and this is their idea of a joke.
The thing that is so monumentally unfair about this title is that the book is terrific, but who’d guess? Who’d give a book a chance having laboured through that dreadful, dreadful title with, on top of it, an exclamation point followed by a colon, an injury to insult if ever there was one.
Rest here:
http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpres...
The thing that is so monumentally unfair about this title is that the book is terrific, but who’d guess? Who’d give a book a chance having laboured through that dreadful, dreadful title with, on top of it, an exclamation point followed by a colon, an injury to insult if ever there was one.
Rest here:
http://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpres...
December 28, 2011
The reader should certainly not be put off by the Stanley Kubric style of the book's title. Ted Nield writes on geology, stellar nucleosynthesis, micropalaeontology or the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event in a similarly entertaining way that Bill Bryson writes travelogues. 2011's 'Incoming' has Dr.Strangenield explain to us how any large visitor from the Asteroid Belt need not be the cause of mass extinction that the modern movies are prone to depict. Bringing his lifetime knowledge of geology along with up to the minute research of meteorites and earth sciences, this book is a very fascinating time travel back through the billions of years of our planet Earth's history and beyond to the even older asteroids.
It would be a great shame to dismiss this book as cold science, this is science writing of the very best kind and available to those who don't know their asteroids from their accretion discs.
It would be a great shame to dismiss this book as cold science, this is science writing of the very best kind and available to those who don't know their asteroids from their accretion discs.
December 8, 2013
This book is a great introduction to the history and development of meteoritics. If you're already familiar with this history then Part III of the book will be of greatest interest. Here the story correlates the Great mid-Ordovician Biological Event with an increase in meteorite bombardment. The destruction wrought by increased meteor impacts created favorable conditions for new types of undersea flora and fauna to thrive in.
The potential role that meteoritic bombardment played in increasing biodiversity is still open to debate. However, there is a deeper message to be found in the book. The story asks us to change the way we view catastrophic impact events. While destructive, conditions for newer forms of life are created. These conditions are in part responsible for opening up the environment for mammals (including humans) to develop into the dominant lifeforms of the planet.
The potential role that meteoritic bombardment played in increasing biodiversity is still open to debate. However, there is a deeper message to be found in the book. The story asks us to change the way we view catastrophic impact events. While destructive, conditions for newer forms of life are created. These conditions are in part responsible for opening up the environment for mammals (including humans) to develop into the dominant lifeforms of the planet.
March 31, 2011
Well now I know that a lot I thought I knew about the impact of impacts (meteorite impacts that is) was wrong – but this fine book also showed how my understanding evolved so badly. The book documents the science, the evolution of each step in the changing understanding of that science, and even to some extent covers its reporting and use in popular culture. All this and a great cover design as well.
July 26, 2014
The quirky title drew me in, I admit and I expected something a bit light-hearted but informative and that’s what it is… mostly. This is one of the most comprehensive books I have ever read on the history of the meteorite. Most astrophysics and astronomy books deal with some of the bigger ideas that most people are interested in and rarely deal with something so specific. Meteorites are rarely dealt with except in terms of “they’re gonna kill us allllll!!!!” This books sets out to correct some of the myths and in that it largely succeeds.
Starting with a basic run down of what past societies thought about meteorites and meteorites (particularly with regard to them being portents of upcoming events), Nield looks at not just superstition, but also where those past societies thought they came from, especially in view of a lack of understanding of astronomy. It’s fascinating to see it laid out bare and there are some amusing statistics on your chances of being hit and killed by an asteroid despite that we are hit with them almost every day.
Nield covers a lot of bases here – from popular stories, sensationalist media, big ideas in science and how meteorites have been subject to such furious debate on a whole range of issues. Of particular interest is the ongoing debate (which will probably never be solved) is “What Killed the Dinosaurs”. Though interestingly the author expresses his exasperation with this because the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs also killed a lot of other life. He compared it to future researchers looking at a hypothetical event wiping out California and asking “what killed all the actors?”
He also looks at the asteroid belt, dispelling the myth that it is a densely packed belt of rock something like Han Solo’s escape in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s nothing like that, you could easily pass through it without seeing a single fragment of rock. He does go off on tangents – too many in my personal opinion – especially into the geological scale of the Earth. For such a short book (the Kindle version finishes at 71% with the rest making up extra reading, notes, glossary and index), he largely keeps to subject.
He discusses some of the key thinkers in driving our understanding of meteorites and of course, some of the most important sites in the world for asteroid study – not just the big ones thought to be responsible for extinctions, but also the smaller and lesser ones that have driven our understanding forwards.
This is primarily a book for the mass market so do not expect anything too intense or earth-shattering. The title suggests an attempt to dispel the myths of public perception and media when it comes to meteorites and how they may have shaped the world around us. In that, it largely does a great job. However, I do feel it could have been more engaging – it’s too dry at times; a bit more humour and a slightly more light-hearted tone to live up to the title would not have gone amiss.
See more book reviews at my blog
Starting with a basic run down of what past societies thought about meteorites and meteorites (particularly with regard to them being portents of upcoming events), Nield looks at not just superstition, but also where those past societies thought they came from, especially in view of a lack of understanding of astronomy. It’s fascinating to see it laid out bare and there are some amusing statistics on your chances of being hit and killed by an asteroid despite that we are hit with them almost every day.
Nield covers a lot of bases here – from popular stories, sensationalist media, big ideas in science and how meteorites have been subject to such furious debate on a whole range of issues. Of particular interest is the ongoing debate (which will probably never be solved) is “What Killed the Dinosaurs”. Though interestingly the author expresses his exasperation with this because the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs also killed a lot of other life. He compared it to future researchers looking at a hypothetical event wiping out California and asking “what killed all the actors?”
He also looks at the asteroid belt, dispelling the myth that it is a densely packed belt of rock something like Han Solo’s escape in The Empire Strikes Back. It’s nothing like that, you could easily pass through it without seeing a single fragment of rock. He does go off on tangents – too many in my personal opinion – especially into the geological scale of the Earth. For such a short book (the Kindle version finishes at 71% with the rest making up extra reading, notes, glossary and index), he largely keeps to subject.
He discusses some of the key thinkers in driving our understanding of meteorites and of course, some of the most important sites in the world for asteroid study – not just the big ones thought to be responsible for extinctions, but also the smaller and lesser ones that have driven our understanding forwards.
This is primarily a book for the mass market so do not expect anything too intense or earth-shattering. The title suggests an attempt to dispel the myths of public perception and media when it comes to meteorites and how they may have shaped the world around us. In that, it largely does a great job. However, I do feel it could have been more engaging – it’s too dry at times; a bit more humour and a slightly more light-hearted tone to live up to the title would not have gone amiss.
See more book reviews at my blog
March 26, 2015
One of those quirky picks at the library. This is a good book and a much, much more involved than the title would suggest. It is about meteorites and some of the Ripley's Believe It or Not incidents humans have experienced up close, interesting in itself, but how the science community has gone from denying the existence of rocks from space (volcanoes, maybe from lightening, peasant folklore) in the 1700's to studying patterns, documenting eyewitnesses and slowly proving to the scientific elite ( which included many who are well known for their scientific contributions in other areas...read the book )in the 1800's that the origin of meteorites really is space. Not that long ago. Nield also reviews fascinating information on the composition of meteorites, incredible detail, and how we theorize we can link them to specific events that happened millions of years ago in our solar system and even the Big Bang ( he covers a lot of ground ). He discusses the pro and con arguments about publicized ( last 40 years or less ) roles meteorites might have played in the extinction of the dinosaurs ( and other mass extinctions over Earths history ), the suggested role meteorites may have played in bringing life to Earth and how the concept of nuclear winter was a byproduct from discussions on large meteorite impacts. The author has created a cross-disciplinary - chemistry, geology, physics, paleontology, astronomy, even theology - story about planet Earth that I found worth reading. And even a little bit of inside scientific sniping at some of his fellow scientists that was interesting to see. Read it for the science alone.
November 23, 2016
First off, I'd like to say that Ted Nield is a brilliant man! He has a vast knowledge of geology and space.
In this book he shares his experiences and the experiences of fellow scientists in regards to the history of meteorites and what they can tell us about Earth. I wanted to love this book, but found it a bit slow. The authors writing and attention to detail were immaculate, but through that attention to detail, I got lost in an overload of information and felt I had to read it at a slower pace, because often Nield would return to a topic that was previously discussed in the book earlier in relation to a new topic he was covering.
I was provided with some knowledge that I previously had, lots of talk of the K-T Boundaries and was able to expand on that knowledge with additional details.
If you're looking for a recap of Geology 101 with the added excitement of orbital objects, this is the book for you.
In this book he shares his experiences and the experiences of fellow scientists in regards to the history of meteorites and what they can tell us about Earth. I wanted to love this book, but found it a bit slow. The authors writing and attention to detail were immaculate, but through that attention to detail, I got lost in an overload of information and felt I had to read it at a slower pace, because often Nield would return to a topic that was previously discussed in the book earlier in relation to a new topic he was covering.
I was provided with some knowledge that I previously had, lots of talk of the K-T Boundaries and was able to expand on that knowledge with additional details.
If you're looking for a recap of Geology 101 with the added excitement of orbital objects, this is the book for you.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews