The Evolutionary Biology Lecture of the Week for September 25, 2006 is now
available at:

http://aics-research.com/lotw/

The talks center primarily around evolutionary biology, in all of its aspects:
cosmology, astronomy, planetology, geology, astrobiology, ecology, ethology,
biogeography, phylogenetics and evolutionary biology itself, and are presented
at a professional level, that of one scientist talking to another. All of the
talks were recorded live at conferences.

=====================================

September 25, 2006

Part I: Asking the Right Questions

Chapter 5: Tongues of Stone

Alan Cutler

Smithsonian Institution

17 min.

The admonition, "Seek, and ye shall find," appears twice in the Christian New
Testament, once in Matthew (7:7) and again in Luke (11:9).

Unfortunately, the problem with the advice is that once you ask a question,
it's human nature that you're virtually guaranteed of finding an answer,
regardless of its validity.

The form of methodological science we practice today has its roots in the
1600's. This was broadly the time of Bruno and Galileo, Copernicus and Newton.
It was also the era of Nicholas Steno, a much lesser known figure, but who is
now widely regarded as the father of modern geology.

A simple question was asked at the time: How could a seashell get into a rock?
And how could that rock get to the top of a mountain? The "seashell question"
was a small, nagging irritant to those who fervently believed the planet was
young and the human race supreme. Complex, intellectually satisfying answers to
the question were unfortunately not rare.

Answering the question correctly unintentionally spurred a scientific,
religious, and philosophical revolution that now underlies almost everything we
know concerning geophysics and geology.