The Extinction Event and Life in the Post-Apocalyptic Greenhouse :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Extinction Event and Life in the Post-Apocalyptic Greenhouse The biggest mass extinction of the past 600 million years (My), the end-Permian event (251 My ago), witnessed the loss of as much as 95% of all species on Earth. Key questions for biologists concern what combination of environmental changes could possibly have had such a devastating effect, the scale and pattern of species loss, and the nature of the recovery. New studies on dating the event, contemporary volcanic activity, and the anatomy of the environmental crisis have changed our perspectives dramatically in the past five years. Evidence on causation is equivocal, with support for either an asteroid impact or mass volcanism, but the latter seems most probable. The rest of this article spends time speculating through the advances in technology and the reanalyzation of old evidence to determine various cataclysmic events that happened millions of years ago. There are many sections in this article that discuss the methods used to determine the closet possible dates and the sequence in which they follow. There are also sections in this article which discuss methods used for the evidence of impact, eruption and how reading the environmental changes can help paleontologists determine conclusions and narrow the perspectives of paleontologists (scientists) and popular culture as a whole. However, there are still many factors in the evidence collecting process that make it difficult to determine the actual events, let alone the sequence of them. For instance, at the end of the Permian, giant volcanic eruptions occurred in Siberia, spewing out some 2 million km3 of basalt lava, and covering 1.6 million km2 of eastern Russia to a depth of 400-3000mteres, equivalent to the area of the European Community. Consequently, with increasingly precise dating, the Siberian â€Å"Trap† (areas which are composed of basalt, a dark-colored igneous rock which is generally not erupted explosively from classic conical volcanoes, but usually emerges more slowly from the long fissures in the ground) have switched from having only a minor role in the Permian crisis to being the most probable cause of the whole catastrophe. Some scientists have even suggested recently that the massive flood basalts were actually themselves caused by a giant extraterrestrial impact, which tore deep into the continental crust of that part of present-day Siberia. So this is yet another example the evolutionary and

Novel: 19 Minutes Essay

As kids grow up, they go through several stages to find out who they truly are. Some kids are very social and have many friends, when others are shy and not considered the coolest kids around. Jodi Picoult demonstrates isolation impeccably in her novel Nineteen Minutes by delving beneath the surface of a small town to explore what it means to be different in today’s society. She shows how one can lose a friend, how people make someone feel bad; in order to feel good about themselves, and how isolation can lead to death related situations. Teenagers and kids in general, as they grow up they tend to change their friends multiple times. In the novel, Peter Houghton and Josie Cormier are very close friends since their childhood. Josie, unlike Peter, stands up for herself and even Peter sometimes, since he is mostly picked on. One day, when Josie and Peter are young, he decides to show her his father’s shotgun, which he uses to hunt with. Alex, Josie’s mothers, catche s them, and was furious saying â€Å"My daughter has been coming over to your house for how long, and you’ve got guns lying around† (Picoult 81)? The mothers from this day on stop being friends, which leads the kids to stop going to each other’s houses, although they still manage to play at school. Josie did not want to isolate Peter, because they are really good friends. Another thing that occurs in the novel, is that when a new girl joined Peter and Josie’s class, she is not very noticed. One day Peter â€Å"notice[s] that [she is] sitting in the middle of an ink stain† (Picoult 158). After Peter realizes that this is not an ink stain and the girl has actually got her period, he screams out: â€Å"Dolores has her period† (Picoult 158)! And then the whole class joins and starts laughing, including Josie. Peter, for a while, enjoys not being the one made fun of for once, but once they kids start teasing her, Peter decides to put a â€Å"sto p†(Picoult 159) to it. After this incident, Josie along with the popular kids continue†¦

The Principles of Scientific Thinking Essay - 602 Words

In psychology, the six principles of scientific thinking are extraordinary claim, falsifiability, Occam razor, replicability, ruling hypotheses of rival, and correlation vs. causation. We know that gaining new knowledge always help the growth of our mind, but sometimes a claim may contradict what we have already known, then we need more persuasive evidences to prove this claim before we accept it. It is natural that people doubt something extraordinary and a very basic thinking skill that is known as extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Specifically, it can be presented as I did not come to class today and I tell my instructor that I ate bad seafood last night and had diarrhea, then she might believe me. If I tell†¦show more content†¦Moreover, the studies should be replicability, it means that repeating the results in other studies ought to be the exact same, which makes it easier to discover errors and ensure that the result is reliable. For example, Medica l News Today reported that â€Å"a patient who also has acute myeloid leukemia has been cured of HIV infection after a stem-cell transplant combined with high-dose chemotherapy and radiation therapy†, German scientists put forward some people carry a mutant gene seems to allow them to have the innate ability to resist HIV, the genes inherited from the parents called â€Å"Delta 32†. Although there have been rare cured HIV cases, but such experiment is highly risky and currently no effective vaccine to prevent and completely cure AIDS and HIV. (â€Å"Evidence†) Thus here the cured patient’s case is not possibly being redo, which is not replicability. By ruling hypotheses of rival, it means when we are evaluating a claim, we need to make sure that whether other plausible explanations have been excluded. Examples for ruling out rival hypotheses could be that if black people have better performance in athletics, there should be more research to make sure the results are not due to better diet and training or other possible factors. And also, raceShow MoreRelatedSix Principles of Scientific Thinking805 Words   |  3 Pages1. Six principles of scientific thinking Six scientific thinking principles refers to psychology basics which are utilized throughout all branches and levels to think scientifically concerning multiple tests, problems, solutions among others. 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Since the thousands of years, people use the management in the great projects such as the Egyptian pyramids and the Great Wall of China. According to Robbins, et al. (2006), Henri Fayol said that all managers perform five functions: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling in the early part of the twentieth century. Robbins stated that, in the mid-1950s, managementRead MoreThe Importance of Religion for Two Paradigms: Science and Natural Philosophy700 Words   |  3 Pagesof Religion for Two Paradigms: Science and Natural Philosophy Since the beginning of the intellectual development of mankind, the question of whether there is god or not has been a question that still remains. However, its effects on our way of thinking has been shaped by a number of people, thinkers, priests, scientists so on and so forth. If we were to divide that continuum into two parts, they would be before the enlightenment and after the enlightenment. Namely the times of natural philosophyRead MoreThe Theory Of Scientific Management Essay1375 Words   |  6 PagesAccording to Miller (2010) Scientific management (Taylorism) was devised by Frederick Taylor to improve economic efficiency especially labor productivity by analyzing and establishing workflows. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management. Taylor’s scientific management was based on four principles. The first is replacing the â€Å"rule of thumb† work methods with methods based on a scientific study. The s econd is selecting, training and developingRead MoreHenri Saint- Simons Lettres dun Habitant de Geneve a ses Contemporains1255 Words   |  5 Pagestimes will not regain its unity to function (Saint-Simon, 1803). 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Taylor’s management style is evident through McDonald’s training, specific systems, and education; while Fayol’s management style manifests through