Hi, Chris, List,
Wegener was a meteorologist, not a geologist.
He was working "outside his field," the ultimate
crime. He could never get academic support (or
a job) because he was not a geologist. Finally, an
Austrian university created a chair of "meteorology
and geophysics" for him, late in his life.
He got good funding, but for his meteorological
work, not geology. His theory was particularly
dispised in the US, and he was widely ridiculed
for it. A meteorologist! What's he up to?
The prevailing theory was Land Bridges: "The
scientific consensus was of sunken land and continents,
now covered in oceans. This land had once provided
a migratory path for the former flora and fauna,
now found as fossils in diverse continents. Land,
of course, was a permanent and unmovable feature
of the earth's surface. Although it might sink,
land could neither move nor be created afresh.
The sunken land had, it was supposed, suffered
from the effects of a 'cooling and contracting earth'.
As the core of the earth cooled and contracted,
its outer crust collapsed inwards. Mountains had
thus arisen, and oceans formed in the depressions,
covering the earlier land bridges."
Along with the theory of continental drift, Wegener
wrote many criticisms of the land bridge theory. This
did not make him popular, either. I recall seeing many
charts of "land bridges" in texts when I was in high
school, narrow intersecting highways across the Pacific
Ocean, with new ones added for every duplicate fossil
species find. Silliest dam thing you ever saw.
Sterling K. Webb
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Peterson" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 3:05 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Age of Man
It is an urban myth that Wegener was ridiculed in any extreme way. He
observed some interesting evidence but could not find a way to
reconcile it and existing geological theory. So his ideas were- quite
correctly- met with skepticism. He did not lose respect in the
scientific community, and was able to secure funding for his projects
until his death.
While it is true that skepticism directed towards new ideas can slow
down the acceptance of those ideas that ultimately prove correct, it
also prevents science from spiraling out of control trying to prove or
disprove every new thing that comes along. For every Wegener who is
ultimately demonstrated correct, there are a thousand people with
crazy ideas that will always be wrong (or more, in this day of the
Internet).
Even if more people had accepted Wegener's idea that the continents
were once connected, it isn't clear that this would have changed the
history of modern geology much. It still took a few more decades
before the necessary technology came along to develop the tectonic
theory underlying continental drift. Science did work, and the state
of knowledge advanced.
Yes, there's an element of truth in the "knowledge filter" idea. But
just a tiny element. And its effect isn't to eliminate evidence, but
to slow down its consideration. I've noticed that the more outlandish
somebody's idea is, the more likely he is to complain of conspiracies
and flaws in the scientific process suppressing new ideas.
Chris
*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerry Flaherty" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>;
<[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, June 19, 2009 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Age of Man
The video's commentary describing "knowlwdge filter " rings true.
Remember the reception by the then vaunted "Scientific Community's"
of Alfred Wegener's classic of the mid 1920's "The Origin of the
Continents and Seafloor Spreading"
Utterly ridiculed, Wegener continued in his quest until his untimely
death in Greenland gathering data in the form of fossils and rock
samples from opposing once contiguous coastal regions.
Fortunately not everyone dismissed Wegener and a network of
cooperative allies provided substantial material allowing Wegner to
republish several times always to a negative reception.
A world war later, when submarines and sonar played a significant
role, over 40 years after his death, Wegener was vindacated when some
woman scientist surveyed the wealth of new geographic information
sonar had inadvertently provided of the seafloor
So, if some information seems paradoxical, contradictory or
fundamentally unsound against the backdrop of the current rational
melieu, SUSPENSION OF JUDGEMENT might be the first utterance to
postulate.
Just humbely "stick it away" into the vast resources of the brain
lest we stumble in an effort to retract words uttered in haste
Jerry Flaherty
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