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| the nemesis affair: Nemesis Affair Revised And Expanded David Raup, 1999-11-23 In this lively, fascinating, and often disturbing book, Raup reexplores the controversies of the Nemesis theory and investigates the issues--both scientific and philosophical --of mass extinction. |
| the nemesis affair: The Nemesis Affair David M. Raup, 1999 |
| the nemesis affair: The Nemesis Affair Erin McCarthy, 2014-12-01 Former rugby player Liam Kelly wants to keep his edge without losing his cool. The sexy Irishman needs someone to help him work out a little healthy aggression outside the office so he’ll avoid punching his difficult boss. He needs an adversary who will goad him, insult, and drive him. Someone to push his limits.What he needs is a professional nemesis. So when Sam responds to his online ad with plenty of cheek and smart-assedness, Liam knows he's found the perfect guy. Except Sam isn’t a guy. She’s Samantha Hess. Very much female, newly unemployed, and eager to turn up the volume on her “nice girl” image. Goading Rugby Boy through texts and emails to run an extra mile each day is like therapy for assertiveness—and she’ll get paid. She just needs to convince Liam Samantha can get the job done just as well as Sam. Samantha’s a smokin’ hot, sassy woman with a girl-next-door vibe who doesn’t have a problem challenging Liam mentally. But how can he take her seriously now, when all he can think about is convincing her that his next workout should be in her bed? And how will Sam keep her adversarial edge—and her heart—safe from the man who’s her perfect match? |
| the nemesis affair: When the Asteroid Hits Allen A. Debus, 2024-10-04 The incomprehensible notion of a very large chunk of ice or rock from outer space smashing into the Earth has only become mainstream within the past two centuries. Though early writers imagined the utterly fantastic consequences of comet collisions and speculated on the devastation they might wreak, it was not until the 1980s when scientists finally resolved that dinosaurs were extinguished by an asteroid 66 million years ago. This startling announcement captivated the media and tilted the science fiction world but in reality, history may have been punctuated repeatedly by such events. This book collects and analyzes ideas of asteroid, comet, and planetary impacts with Earth spanning two centuries, from the first realization of extinctions in fossil records to the new millennium, reflected in scores of sci-fi stories, films, and televised science documentaries. The author examines social and geopolitical fears tied to the prospect of a cosmic-borne catastrophe. Science, fiction, and speculation are artfully melded. |
| the nemesis affair: Perilous Planet Earth Trevor Palmer, 2003-06-12 A readable account of the history of natural disasters throughout history. |
| the nemesis affair: Nemesis Philip Roth, 2010-10-05 Set in a Newark neighborhood during a terrifying polio outbreak, Nemesis is a wrenching examination of the forces of circumstance on our lives. Bucky Cantor is a vigorous, dutiful twenty-three-year-old playground director during the summer of 1944. A javelin thrower and weightlifter, he is disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his contemporaries. As the devastating disease begins to ravage Bucky’s playground, Roth leads us through every inch of emotion such a pestilence can breed: fear, panic, anger, bewilderment, suffering, and pain. Moving between the streets of Newark and a pristine summer camp high in the Poconos, Nemesis tenderly and startlingly depicts Cantor’s passage into personal disaster, the condition of childhood, and the painful effect that the wartime polio epidemic has on a closely-knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children. |
| the nemesis affair: Nemesis Peter Evans, 2004-06 Explores the feud between Aristotle Onassis and the Kennedy family, documenting Robert Kennedy's role in barring Onassis from U.S.trade and the shipping magnate's early relationship with Jacqueline Kennedy. |
| the nemesis affair: The Diversity of Life Edward O. Wilson, 1992 View a collection of videos on Professor Wilson entitled On the Relation of Science and the Humanities In the Amazon Basin the greatest violence sometimes begins as a flicker of light beyond the horizon. There in the perfect bowl of the night sky, untouched by light from any human source, a thunderstorm sends its premonitory signal and begins a slow journey to the observer, who thinks: the world is about to change. Watching from the edge of the Brazilian rain forest, witness to the sort of violence nature visits upon its creatures, Edward O. Wilson reflects on the crucible of evolution, and so begins his remarkable account of how the living world became diverse and how humans are destroying that diversity. Wilson, internationally regarded as the dean of biodiversity studies, conducts us on a tour through time, traces the processes that create new species in bursts of adaptive radiation, and points out the cataclysmic events that have disrupted evolution and diminished global diversity over the past 600 million years. The five enormous natural blows to the planet (such as meteorite strikes and climatic changes) required 10 to 100 million years of evolutionary repair. The sixth great spasm of extinction on earth--caused this time entirely by humans--may be the one that breaks the crucible of life. Wilson identifies this crisis in countless ecosystems around the globe: coral reefs, grasslands, rain forests, and other natural habitats. Drawing on a variety of examples such as the decline of bird populations in the United States, the extinction of many species of freshwater fish in Africa and Asia, and the rapid disappearance of flora and fauna as the rain forests are cut down, he poignantly describes the death throes of the living world's diversity--projected to decline as much as 20 percent by the year 2020. All evidence marshaled here resonates through Wilson's tightly reasoned call for a spirit of stewardship over the world's biological wealth. He makes a plea for specific actions that will enhance rather than diminish not just diversity but the quality of life on earth. Cutting through the tangle of environmental issues that often obscure the real concern, Wilson maintains that the era of confrontation between forces for the preservation of nature and those for economic development is over; he convincingly drives home the point that both aims can, and must, be integrated. Unparalleled in its range and depth, Wilson's masterwork is essential reading for those who care about preserving the world biological variety and ensuring our planet's health. |
| the nemesis affair: Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology Sara Schechner Genuth, 2021-03-09 In a lively investigation into the boundaries between popular culture and early-modern science, Sara Schechner presents a case study that challenges the view that rationalism was at odds with popular belief in the development of scientific theories. Schechner Genuth delineates the evolution of people's understanding of comets, showing that until the seventeenth century, all members of society dreaded comets as heaven-sent portents of plague, flood, civil disorder, and other calamities. Although these beliefs became spurned as vulgar superstitions by the elite before the end of the century, she shows that they were nonetheless absorbed into the science of Newton and Halley, contributing to their theories in subtle yet profound ways. Schechner weaves together many strands of thought: views of comets as signs and causes of social and physical changes; vigilance toward monsters and prodigies as indicators of God's will; Christian eschatology; scientific interpretations of Scripture; astrological prognostication and political propaganda; and celestial mechanics and astrophysics. This exploration of the interplay between high and low beliefs about nature leads to the conclusion that popular and long-held views of comets as divine signs were not overturned by astronomical discoveries. Indeed, they became part of the foundation on which modern cosmology was built. |
| the nemesis affair: Lifting the Scientific Veil Paul Sukys, 1999 Lifting the Scientific Veil has been written to afford the nonscience student the same meaningful opportunity to explore germane scientific topics as is generally given the science student to learn about the humanities and social sciences. Since nonscientists are generally responsible for making laws, financing research, or, at the very least, for voting, it is essential that they understand the significant impact that science has on everyday life. The book is designed to introduce nonscientists in an informative and comprehensible manner to four of the most significant scientific theories of the twentieth century: the big bang, quantum physics, relativity, and evolution. After each theory is explained informally, the book shows how that theory and related technology impact upon one's personal life. Legal and political aspects of these theories are explored as well as philosophical and theological implications. |
| the nemesis affair: Vanished Sadiah Qureshi, 2025-06-05 'A vital and important book' David Olusoga From an award-winning historian of race, science and empire, a path-breaking and poignant history of extinction as a scientific idea, an imperial legacy and a political choice Anyone alive today is among a tiny fraction of the once living: over 90% of species that ever existed are now extinct. How did we come to think of ourselves as survivors in a world where species can vanish forever, or as capable of pushing our planet to the verge of a sixth mass extinction? Extinction, Sadiah Qureshi shows us, is a surprisingly modern concept – and a phenomenon that’s not as natural as we might think. In Europe until the late eighteenth century, species were considered perfect and unchanging creations of God. Then in the age of revolutions, scientists gathered enough fossil evidence to determine that mammoth bones, for example, were not just large elephants but a lost species that once roamed the Earth alongside ancient humans. Extinction went from being regarded as theologically dangerous to pervasive, and even inevitable. Yet Vanished shows us that extinction is more than a scientific idea; it’s a political choice that has led to devasting consequences. Europeans and Americans quickly used the notion that extinction was a natural process to justify persecution and genocide, predicting that nations from Newfoundland’s Beothuk to Aboriginal Australians were doomed to die out from imperial expansion. Exploring the tangled and unnatural histories of extinction and empire, Vanished weaves together pioneering original research and breath-taking storytelling to show us extinction is both an evolutionary process and a human act: one which illuminates our past, and may alter our future. |
| the nemesis affair: The Methodology of Economics Mark Blaug, 1992-07-31 This book is an examination of the nature of economic explanation. The opening chapters introduce current thinking in the philosophy of science and review the literature on methodology. Professor Blaug then turns to the troublesome question of the logical status of welfare economics, giving the reader an understanding of the outstanding issues in the methodology of economics. This is followed by a series of case studies of leading economic controversies, which shows how controversies in economics may be illuminated by paying attention to questions of methodology. A final chapter draws the strands together and gives the author's view of what is wrong with modern economics. This book is a revised and updated edition of a classic work on the methodology of economics, in which Professor Blaug develops his discussion of the latest developments in macroeconomics, general equilibrium theory and international trade theory. A new section on the rationality postulate is also added. |
| the nemesis affair: The Late Devonian Mass Extinction George R. McGhee, 1996 Based on two decades of research, The Late Devonian Mass Extinction reviews the many theories that have been presented to explain the global mass extinction that struck the earth over 367 million years ago, considering in particular the possibility that the extinction was triggered by multiple impacts of extraterrestrial objects. |
| the nemesis affair: The Great Silence Milan M. Ćirković, 2018 Researchers believe that the universe is vast and old enough that life has evolved and become intelligent and technological many times on different worlds - yet we have seen no trace of extraterrestrial intelligence. This conundrum, known as the Fermi pardox, is the deepest mystery in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This book aims to shed some light on that biggest of questions: where is everybody? |
| the nemesis affair: The Astrobiological Landscape Cirkovic, 2012-06-21 Introducing new, multidisciplinary concepts, this book explains how we have reached a critical threshold in the study of astrobiology. |
| the nemesis affair: Comets and the Origin and Evolution of Life Paul J. Thomas, Christopher F. Chyba, Christopher P. McKay, 2013-03-09 This volume considers the role comets may have played in the origins and evolution of life, particularly in light of recent investigations of Halley's comet, of new insights into organic synthesis in meteorites and comets, and of new results of numerical simulations of cometary orbits and impacts on Earth. The book is intended as a comprehensive review of current research, accessible to graduate students and others new to the field. Each chapter was prepared by an expert to give an overview of an aspect of the field, and carefully revised by the editors for uniformity in style and presentation. |
| the nemesis affair: The Mysterious Origins of Hybrid Man Susan B. Martinez, 2013-11-02 A provocative challenge to Darwin’s theory of evolution • Shows there is no missing link because the human race, since day one, is the result of outright interbreeding among highly diverse types • Reveals multiple “Gardens of Eden” and how each continent has its own independent hominid lineages • Explains Homo sapiens’ mental powers (the Great Leap Forward) and how we acquired the “blood of the gods,” which endowed us with a soul Did we evolve from apes, or are we all descendants of Adam and Eve? Why is the “missing link” still missing? Is the dumb luck of natural selection valid? Piecing together the protohistory of humanity through anthropology, genetics, paleolinguistics, and indigenous traditions, Susan B. Martinez offers an entirely original alternative to Darwin’s evolution: Modern humanity did not evolve but is a mosaic of mixed ancestry, the result of eons of cross-breeding and retro-breeding among different groups, including Cro-Magnon, Neanderthal, hobbits, giants, and Africa’s “Lucy” and “Zinj.” Martinez shows that there were multiple “Gardens of Eden” and how each continent had its own blend of races prior to the Great Flood, which caused the diaspora that brought a renaissance of culture to every division of the Earth. Martinez explains Homo sapiens’ mental powers (the Great Leap Forward) in cosmological terms--how we are the product of both heaven and earth. She identifies the “Sons of Heaven” and the angel-engendered races, explaining how Homo sapiens acquired the “blood of the gods,” which endowed us with a soul. Providing the ultimate resolution to the Evolution versus Creationism debate, this landmark study of hybrid man justifies his unexpectedly sudden appearance in the fossil record, the curious parallels between oral histories of the world’s people, and why anatomically modern features are found in the earliest paleontological evidence. |
| the nemesis affair: The Handbook of Historical Linguistics Brian Joseph, Richard Janda, 2008-04-15 The Handbook of Historical Linguistics provides a detailed account of the numerous issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics, the area of linguistics most directly concerned with language change as well as past language states. Contains an extensive introduction that places the study of historical linguistics in its proper context within linguistics and the historical sciences in general Covers the methodology of historical linguistics and presents sophisticated overviews of the principles governing phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic change Includes contributions from the leading specialists in the field |
| the nemesis affair: The Mass-Extinction Debates William Glen, 1994 This book examines the arguments and behavior of the scientists who have been locked in conflict over two competing theories to explain why, 65 million years ago, most life on earth—including the dinosaurs—perished. |
| the nemesis affair: Dinosaurs by the Decades Randy Moore, 2014-07-23 Providing an appealing chronology of all things dinosaur, this book covers these ancient creatures' roles and surprising importance in science, religion, and society at large. This exhaustive, up-to-date book contains more than 2,000 entries about dinosaurs and dinosaur-related topics. It provides not only detailed information about their discovery, underlying science, and recent technologies and theories but also encompasses all of the facets of dinosaurs in society—for example, their use in consumer marketing and promotion, popularization of dinosaurs in the media, as proof for both evolutionists and creationists to substantiate their claims about life's origins, and as cultural artifacts. Organized chronologically, the book offers an informative and entertaining timeline of how dinosaurs have appeared in science, religion, and society since they were discovered in the 1800s, covering everything from dinosaur museum displays to how dinosaurs served advocates of young-Earth creationism. This fascinating work enables a broad appreciation for the surprising significance of dinosaurs in many aspects of our daily lives and modern society. |
| the nemesis affair: Off the Main Sequence Tom Easton, 2006-10-01 Tom Easton has served as the monthly book review columnist for Analog Science Fiction for almost three decades, having contributed during that span many hundreds of columns and over a million words of penetrating criticism on the best literature that science fiction has to offer. His reviews have been celebrated for their wit, humor, readability, knowledge, and incisiveness. His love of literature, particularly fantastic literature, is everywhere evident in his essays. Easton has ever been willing to cover small presses, obscure authors, and unusual publications, being the only major critic in the field to do so on a regular basis. He seems to delight in finding the rare gem among the backwaters of the publishing field. A reviewer's job, he says, is not to judge books for the ages, but to tell readers enough about a book to give them some idea of whether they would enjoy it. And this he does admirably, whether he's discussing the works of the great writers in the field, or touching upon the least amongst them. This companion volume to Periodic Stars (Borgo/Wildside) collects another 250 of Easton's best reviews from the last fifteen years of The Reference Library. No one does it better, and no other guide provides such lengthy or discerning commentary on the best SF works of recent times. Complete with Introduction and detailed Index. |
| the nemesis affair: The Common But Less Frequent Loon and Other Essays Keith Stewart Thomson, 1996-02-21 Looking at the aesthetic, literary and intellectual aspects of science, this work sets out to convey what is involved in being a scientist today. Science is described as a great adventure, a search for why things are as they are. |
| the nemesis affair: The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert, 2014-02-11 ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW'S 10 BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR A major book about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a powerful account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. In The Sixth Extinction, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines, accompanying many of them into the field: geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. She introduces us to a dozen species, some already gone, others facing extinction, including the Panamian golden frog, staghorn coral, the great auk, and the Sumatran rhino. Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human. |
| the nemesis affair: The Paleobiological Revolution David Sepkoski, Michael Ruse, 2015-03-04 The Paleobiological Revolution chronicles the incredible ascendance of the once-maligned science of paleontology to the vanguard of a field. With the establishment of the modern synthesis in the 1940s and the pioneering work of George Gaylord Simpson, Ernst Mayr, and Theodosius Dobzhansky, as well as the subsequent efforts of Stephen Jay Gould, David Raup, and James Valentine, paleontology became embedded in biology and emerged as paleobiology, a first-rate discipline central to evolutionary studies. Pairing contributions from some of the leading actors of the transformation with overviews from historians and philosophers of science, the essays here capture the excitement of the seismic changes in the discipline. In so doing, David Sepkoski and Michael Ruse harness the energy of the past to call for further study of the conceptual development of modern paleobiology. |
| the nemesis affair: Extinctions in the History of Life Paul D. Taylor, 2004-11-11 Extinction is the ultimate fate of all biological species - over 99 percent of the species that have ever inhabited the Earth are now extinct. The long fossil record of life provides scientists with crucial information about when species became extinct, which species were most vulnerable to extinction, and what processes may have brought about extinctions in the geological past. Key aspects of extinctions in the history of life are here reviewed by six leading palaeontologists, providing a source text for geology and biology undergraduates as well as more advanced scholars. Topical issues such as the causes of mass extinctions and how animal and plant life has recovered from these cataclysmic events that have shaped biological evolution are dealt with. This helps us to view the biodiversity crisis in a broader context, and shows how large-scale extinctions have had profound and long-lasting effects on the Earth's biosphere. |
| the nemesis affair: The Horned Dinosaurs Peter Dodson, 2017-03-14 The horned dinosaurs, a group of rhinoceros-like creatures that lived 100 to 65 million years ago, included one of the greatest and most popular dinosaurs studied today: Triceratops. Noted for his flamboyant appearance--marked by a striking array of horns over the nose and eyes, a long bony frill at the back of the head, and an assortment of lumps and bumps for attracting females--this herbivore displayed remarkable strength in its ability to fight off Tyrannosaurus rex. It was also among the last dinosaurs to walk the earth. In telling us about Triceratops and its relatives, the Ceratopsia, Peter Dodson here re-creates the sense of adventure enjoyed by so many scientists who have studied them since their discovery in the mid-nineteenth century. From the badlands of the Red Deer River in Alberta to the Gobi Desert, Dodson pieces together fossil evidence to describe the ceratopsians themselves--their anatomy, biology, and geography--and he evokes the human dimension of their discovery and interpretation. An authoritative survey filled with many original illustrations, this book is the first comprehensive presentation of horned dinosaurs for the general reader. Dodson explains first the fascinating ways in which the ceratopsians dealt with their dangerous environment. There follows a lesson on ceratopsian bone structure, which enables the reader quickly to grasp the questions that still puzzle scientists, concerning features such as posture, gait, footprints, and diet. Dodson evenhandedly discusses controversies that continue, for example, over sexual dimorphism and the causes of the dinosaurs' disappearance. Throughout his narrative, we are reminded that dinosaur study is a human enterprise. We meet the scientists who charmed New York high society into financing expeditions to Mongolia, home of Triceratops' predecessors, as well as those who used their poker winnings to sustain paleontology expeditions. Rich in fossil lore and in tales of adventure, the world of the Ceratopsia is presented here for specialists and general readers alike. Originally published in 1996. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905. |
| the nemesis affair: Global Events and Event Stratigraphy in the Phanerozoic Otto H. Walliser, 2012-12-06 The existence of rapid and even catastrophic turnovers within the Phanerozoic ecosystems has been discussed controversially for more than 170 years. Since 1980 this discussion has become even more intensive after the hypothesis of Alvarez, explaining the end-Cretaceous mass extinction as the result of a huge asteroid impact on the Earth. This theory stimulated several thousand papers and is still controversial. The international research programme on Global Biological Events in Earth History attempts to bring the discussion back to the facts by using multidisciplinary investigations of the major Phanerozoic events. The results of an international group of experts are presented giving a wealth of information and a thorough discussion of the causes of the various global events. |
| the nemesis affair: The Great Dinosaur Controversy Keith Parsons, 2003-12-02 A historical review of the most important scientific controversies that have shaped our knowledge of dinosaurs since the discovery of important fossils in the 1820s. In The Great Dinosaur Controversy: A Guide to the Debates, the major scientific disputes that have contributed to the understanding of dinosaurs come to light. Each chapter presents a major controversy then ponders the lessons learned and their impact on the scientific field. Colorful characters such as anti-evolutionist Robert Owen, Darwin's bulldog, T.H. Huxley, and dinosaur heretic Robert Bakker, enliven the debates, which range from the origin of dinosaurs and their posture to their evolution or retrogression and whether they were warm- or cold-blooded. Two of the most recent debates concern how dinosaurs became extinct and whether or not birds are their descendents. |
| the nemesis affair: At The Fringes Of Science Michael W Friedlander, 2018-03-05 Scientific discoveries are constantly in the news. Almost daily we hear about new and important breakthroughs. But sometimes it turns out that what was trumpeted as scientific truth is later discredited, or controversy may long swirl about some dramatic claim. What is a nonscientist to believe? Many books debunk pseudoscience, and some others present only the scientific consensus on any given issue. In At the Fringes of Science Michael Friedlander offers a careful look at the shadowlands of science. What makes Friedlander's book especially useful is that he reviews conventional scientific method and shows how scientists examine the hard cases to determine what is science and what is pseudoscience. Emphasizing that there is no clear line of demarcation between science and nonscience, Friedlander leads the reader through case after entertaining case, covering the favorites of tabloid science such as astrology and UFOs, scientific controversies such as cold fusion, and those maverick ideas that were at first rejected by science only to be embraced later. There are many good stories here, but there is also much learning and wisdom. Students of science and interested lay readers will come away from this book with an increased understanding of what science is, how it works, and how the nonscientist should deal with science at its fringes. |
| the nemesis affair: Rereading the Fossil Record David Sepkoski, 2015-03-05 Rereading the Fossil Record presents the first-ever historical account of the origin, rise, and importance of paleobiology, from the mid-nineteenth century to the late 1980s. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, David Sepkoski shows how the movement was conceived and promoted by a small but influential group of paleontologists and examines the intellectual, disciplinary, and political dynamics involved in the ascendency of paleobiology. By tracing the role of computer technology, large databases, and quantitative analytical methods in the emergence of paleobiology, this book also offers insight into the growing prominence and centrality of data-driven approaches in recent science. |
| the nemesis affair: The Nature of Science in Science Education W.F. McComas, 2006-04-11 The Nature of Science in Science Education is the first book to blend a justification for the inclusion of the history and philosophy of science in science teaching with methods by which this vital content can be shared with a variety of learners. It contains a complete analysis of the variety of tools developed thus far to assess learning in this domain. This book is relevant to science methods instructors, science education graduate students and science teachers. |
| the nemesis affair: The Linguistics Wars Randy Allen Harris, 1995-03-09 When it was first published in 1957, Noam Chomsky's Syntactic Structure seemed to be just a logical expansion of the reigning approach to linguistics. Soon, however, there was talk from Chomsky and his associates about plumbing mental structure; then there was a new phonology; and then there was a new set of goals for the field, cutting it off completely from its anthropological roots and hitching it to a new brand of psychology. Rapidly, all of Chomsky's ideas swept the field. While the entrenched linguists were not looking for a messiah, apparently many of their students were. There was a revolution, which colored the field of linguistics for the following decades. Chomsky's assault on Bloomfieldianism (also known as American Structuralism) and his development of Transformational-Generative Grammar was promptly endorsed by new linguistic recruits swelling the discipline in the sixties. Everyone was talking of a scientific revolution in linguistics, and major breakthroughs seemed imminent, but something unexpected happened--Chomsky and his followers had a vehement and public falling out. In The Linguistic Wars, Randy Allen Harris tells how Chomsky began reevaluating the field and rejecting the extensions his students and erstwhile followers were making. Those he rejected (the Generative Semanticists) reacted bitterly, while new students began to pursue Chomsky's updated vision of language. The result was several years of infighting against the backdrop of the notoriously prickly sixties. The outcome of the dispute, Harris shows, was not simply a matter of a good theory beating out a bad one. The debates followed the usual trajectory of most large-scale clashes, scientific or otherwise. Both positions changed dramatically in the course of the dispute--the triumphant Chomskyan position was very different from the initial one; the defeated generative semantics position was even more transformed. Interestingly, important features of generative semantics have since made their way into other linguistic approaches and continue to influence linguistics to this very day. And fairly high up on the list of borrowers is Noam Chomsky himself. The repercussions of the Linguistics Wars are still with us, not only in the bruised feelings and late-night war stories of the combatants, and in the contentious mood in many quarters, but in the way linguists currently look at language and the mind. Full of anecdotes and colorful portraits of key personalities, The Linguistics Wars is a riveting narrative of the course of an important intellectual controversy, and a revealing look into how scientists and scholars contend for theoretical glory. |
| the nemesis affair: Against the Tide Martín López Corredoira, Carlos Castro Perelman, 2008 Nobody should have a monopoly of the truth in this universe. The censorship and suppression of challenging ideas against the tide of mainstream research, the blacklisting of scientists, for instance, is neither the best way to do and filter science, nor to promote progress in the human knowledge. The removal of good and novel ideas from the scientific stage is very detrimental to the pursuit of the truth. There are instances in which a mere unqualified belief can occasionally be converted into a generally accepted scientific theory through the screening action of refereed literature and meetings planned by the scientific organizing committees and through the distribution of funds controlled by club opinions. It leads to unitary paradigms and unitary thinking not necessarily associated to the unique truth. This is the topic of this book: to critically analyze the problems of the official (and sometimes illicit) mechanisms under which current science (physics and astronomy in particular) is being administered and filtered today, along with the onerous consequences these mechanisms have on all of us. Apart from the editors, Juan Miguel Campanario, Brian Martin, Wolfgang Kundt, J. Marvin Herndon, Marian Apostol, Halton C. Arp, Tom Van Flandern, Andrei P. Kirilyuk, Dmitri Rabounski and Henry H. Bauer, all of them professional researchers, reveal a pessimistic view of the miseries of the actual system, while a glimmer of hope remains in the leitmotiv claim towards the freedom in doing research and attaining an acceptable level of ethics in science. |
| the nemesis affair: The Universe Within Neil Shubin, 2013-01-08 **Kirkus Best Books of the Year (2013)** From one of our finest and most popular science writers, and the best-selling author of Your Inner Fish, comes the answer to a scientific mystery as big as the world itself: How are the events that formed our solar system billions of years ago embedded inside each of us? In Your Inner Fish, Neil Shubin delved into the amazing connections between human bodies—our hands, heads, and jaws—and the structures in fish and worms that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. In The Universe Within, with his trademark clarity and exuberance, Shubin takes an even more expansive approach to the question of why we look the way we do. Starting once again with fossils, he turns his gaze skyward, showing us how the entirety of the universe’s fourteen-billion-year history can be seen in our bodies. As he moves from our very molecular composition (a result of stellar events at the origin of our solar system) through the workings of our eyes, Shubin makes clear how the evolution of the cosmos has profoundly marked our own bodies. WITH BLACK-AND-WHITE LINE DRAWINGS THROUGHOUT |
| the nemesis affair: Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs Donald R. Prothero, 2009 Donald R. Prothero's science books combine leading research with first-person narratives of discovery, injecting warmth and familiarity into a profession that has much to offer nonspecialists. Bringing his trademark style and wit to an increasingly relevant subject of concern, Prothero links the climate changes that have occurred over the past 200 million years to their effects on plants and animals. In particular, he contrasts the extinctions that ended the Cretaceous period, which wiped out the dinosaurs, with those of the later Eocene and Oligocene epochs. Prothero begins with the greenhouse of the dinosaurs, the global-warming episode that dominated the Age of Dinosaurs and the early Age of Mammals. He describes the remarkable creatures that once populated the earth and draws on his experiences collecting fossils in the Big Badlands of South Dakota to sketch their world. Prothero then discusses the growth of the first Antarctic glaciers, which marked the Eocene-Oligocene transition, and shares his own anecdotes of excavations and controversies among colleagues that have shaped our understanding of the contemporary and prehistoric world. The volume concludes with observations about Nisqually Glacier and other locations that show how global warming is happening much quicker than previously predicted, irrevocably changing the balance of the earth's thermostat. Engaging scientists and general readers alike, Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs connects events across thousands of millennia to make clear the human threat to natural climate change. |
| the nemesis affair: Cretaceous Project 200, Volume 1: The Cretaceous World M.B. Hart, S.J. Batenburg, B.T. Huber, G.D. Price, N. Thibault, M. Wagreich, I. Walaszczyk, 2025-04-02 The Cretaceous was first mentioned in the legend of a geological map, largely centred on France, published in 1822 by Jean Baptiste Julien d’Omalius d’Halloy. Two hundred years of research have demonstrated that the Cretaceous records some of the highest sea levels, atmospheric temperatures and extreme events in Earth history. It was also a time of significant palaeogeographical changes and continental fragmentation. This volume draws together a collection of papers that demonstrate these particularly Cretaceous events of warm climates, sea-level change and the impact of major volcanic events on the fauna and flora of the time. Geochemical and stable isotope data are used to interpret these changing environments and their impact on the Cretaceous ecosystem. The volume closes with a description of the recent drilling of the Chicxulub bolide impact site |
| the nemesis affair: The Eocene-Oligocene Transition Donald R. Prothero, 1994 After a decade of new findings and interpretation based on innovative techniques during the 1980s, archaeologists were pretty sure that 38 million years ago the earth still basked in a subtropical greenhouse that had lasted since the age of dinosaurs, but 5 million years later there were glaciers in the Antarctic, signalling the beginning of the icehouse state that we know now. Here is a summary of the present understanding of the climatic and biological changes, for nonspecialists who have some familiarity with the terms and concepts of archaeology. Paper edition (08091-3), $24. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR |
| the nemesis affair: The Internet Revolution in the Sciences and Humanities Alan G. Gross, Joseph E. Harmon, 2016-05-10 The Internet Revolution in the Sciences and Humanities takes a new look at C.P. Snow's distinction between the two cultures, a distinction that provides the driving force for a book that contends that the Internet revolution has sown the seeds for transformative changes in both the sciences and the humanities. It is because of this common situation that the humanities can learn from the sciences, as well as the sciences from the humanities, in matters central to both: generating, evaluating, and communicating knowledge on the Internet. In a succession of chapters, the authors deal with the state of the art in web-based journal articles and books, web sites, peer review, and post-publication review. In the final chapter, they address the obstacles the academy and scientific organizations face in taking full advantage of the Internet: outmoded tenure and promotion procedures, the cost of open access, and restrictive patent and copyright law. They also argue that overcoming these obstacles does not require revolutionary institutional change. In their view, change must be incremental, making use of the powers and prerogatives scientific and academic organizations already have. |
| the nemesis affair: The Miner's Canary Niles Eldredge, 1994-07-03 THE EXTINCTION OF PLANT AND ANIMAL SPECIES SHOULD GIVE US CAUSE TO PAUSE AND DISCOVER WHY. |
Nemesis - Wikipedia
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Nemesis (/ ˈnɛməsɪs / ⓘ; Ancient Greek: Νέμεσις, romanized: Némesis) also called Rhamnousia (or Rhamnusia; Ancient Greek: Ῥαμνουσία, romanized: …
NEMESIS Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
Nemesis was the Greek goddess of vengeance, a deity who doled out rewards for noble acts and punishment for evil ones. The Greeks believed that Nemesis didn't always punish an offender …
Nemesis - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms - Vocabulary.com
The word nemesis describes a rival who just somehow seems able to get the best of you. It can be someone you compete against, someone whose skills are nearly identical to yours and yet, …
NEMESIS | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
NEMESIS definition: 1. Someone's nemesis is a person or thing that is very difficult for them to defeat. 2. (a cause…. Learn more.
Nemesis – Mythopedia
Mar 8, 2023 · Nemesis, daughter of Nyx, was the divine personification of retribution. Often imagined as a beautiful goddess wielding the scales and rod of justice, Nemesis was known …
NEMESIS Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc.. The performance test proved to be my nemesis. an opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome. (initial capital letter) …
Nemesis | Goddess, Retribution, Vengeance | Britannica
Nemesis, in Greek religion, two divine conceptions, the first an Attic goddess, the daughter of Nyx (Night), and the second an abstraction of indignant disapproval, later personified.
nemesis - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jun 10, 2025 · From the Greek goddess of retribution Nemesis (Ancient Greek Νέμεσις (Némesis)). nemesis (plural nemeses) An enemy, especially an archenemy. Batman is in …
NEMESIS definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
The nemesis of a person or thing is a situation, event, or person which causes them to be seriously harmed, especially as a punishment.
nemesis, n. meanings, etymology and more | Oxford English …
What does the noun nemesis mean? There are five meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun nemesis . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
Nemesis - Wikipedia
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Nemesis (/ ˈnɛməsɪs / ⓘ; Ancient Greek: Νέμεσις, romanized: Némesis) also called Rhamnousia (or Rhamnusia; Ancient Greek: Ῥαμνουσία, romanized: …
NEMESIS Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
Nemesis was the Greek goddess of vengeance, a deity who doled out rewards for noble acts and punishment for evil ones. The Greeks believed that Nemesis didn't always punish an offender …
Nemesis - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms - Vocabulary.com
The word nemesis describes a rival who just somehow seems able to get the best of you. It can be someone you compete against, someone whose skills are nearly identical to yours and yet, …
NEMESIS | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary
NEMESIS definition: 1. Someone's nemesis is a person or thing that is very difficult for them to defeat. 2. (a cause…. Learn more.
Nemesis – Mythopedia
Mar 8, 2023 · Nemesis, daughter of Nyx, was the divine personification of retribution. Often imagined as a beautiful goddess wielding the scales and rod of justice, Nemesis was known …
NEMESIS Definition & Meaning | Dictionary.com
something that a person cannot conquer, achieve, etc.. The performance test proved to be my nemesis. an opponent or rival whom a person cannot best or overcome. (initial capital letter) …
Nemesis | Goddess, Retribution, Vengeance | Britannica
Nemesis, in Greek religion, two divine conceptions, the first an Attic goddess, the daughter of Nyx (Night), and the second an abstraction of indignant disapproval, later personified.
nemesis - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jun 10, 2025 · From the Greek goddess of retribution Nemesis (Ancient Greek Νέμεσις (Némesis)). nemesis (plural nemeses) An enemy, especially an archenemy. Batman is in …
NEMESIS definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
The nemesis of a person or thing is a situation, event, or person which causes them to be seriously harmed, especially as a punishment.
nemesis, n. meanings, etymology and more | Oxford English …
What does the noun nemesis mean? There are five meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun nemesis . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.
