Comments on: Ward — Out of Thin Air http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/4818.html Some Chicago Boyz know each other from student days at the University of Chicago. Others are Chicago boys in spirit. The blog name is also intended as a good-humored gesture of admiration for distinguished Chicago boys including those pictured above. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:44:18 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Frank Mosca http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/4818.html/comment-page-1#comment-66132 Frank Mosca Sun, 27 May 2007 16:04:31 +0000 http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/004818.html#comment-66132 When I was a boy back in the 50's, I bumped into Alfred Wegener's book on plate tectonics. I raced to school with it and showed it to my science teacher who pooh-poohed the idea. I remember walking away saying to myself that the teacher was wrong and that somehow what Wegener said just "felt" right and it made sense. I also remember feeling vindicated -- as if I had anything to do with it :-) when plate tectonics was shown to actually exist. After reading Peter D. Wards, Out of Thin Air, I have the same feeling I did as a boy with Wegener. This just "feels" right. This book though also has a lot of hard data suggesting the basic hypothesis. This definitely is going to cause a paradigm shift in how we look at the evolution of life. Are all the author's hypotheses going to be borne out in the way he suggests? Likely not. As evidence accumulates there will undoubtedly be some shifts and some new hypotheses, but I also have no doubt at all that the major theme: that much of life's evolution was driven mainly by varying oxygen levels will be fully accepted. I also am going to be VERY nice to my birds from now on. Heck, the avians may one day be the dominant phylum if O2 levels drop again and I'd want them to be very understanding of us poor oxygen deprived mammals. When I was a boy back in the 50’s, I bumped into Alfred Wegener’s book on plate tectonics. I raced to school with it and showed it to my science teacher who pooh-poohed the idea. I remember walking away saying to myself that the teacher was wrong and that somehow what Wegener said just “felt” right and it made sense. I also remember feeling vindicated — as if I had anything to do with it :-) when plate tectonics was shown to actually exist.

After reading Peter D. Wards, Out of Thin Air, I have the same feeling I did as a boy with Wegener. This just “feels” right. This book though also has a lot of hard data suggesting the basic hypothesis. This definitely is going to cause a paradigm shift in how we look at the evolution of life. Are all the author’s hypotheses going to be borne out in the way he suggests? Likely not. As evidence accumulates there will undoubtedly be some shifts and some new hypotheses, but I also have no doubt at all that the major theme: that much of life’s evolution was driven mainly by varying oxygen levels will be fully accepted.

I also am going to be VERY nice to my birds from now on. Heck, the avians may one day be the dominant phylum if O2 levels drop again and I’d want them to be very understanding of us poor oxygen deprived mammals.

]]> By: Phil Fraering http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/4818.html/comment-page-1#comment-32698 Phil Fraering Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:28:18 +0000 http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/004818.html#comment-32698 I'll have to take a look at it too. I’ll have to take a look at it too.

]]> By: Shannon Love http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/4818.html/comment-page-1#comment-32692 Shannon Love Wed, 21 Feb 2007 16:01:26 +0000 http://chicagoboyz.net/archives/004818.html#comment-32692 Neat, I'll have to snag this. Neat, I’ll have to snag this.

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