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Snowball Earth: The Story of a Maverick Scientist and His Theory of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It |
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Snowball Earth: The Story of a Maverick Scientist and His Theory of the Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life As We Know It
List Price: $13.95
Our Price: $11.16
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
Author: Gabrielle Walker
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 2004-02-24
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Label: Three Rivers Press
Number Of Pages: 288
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Editorial Review:
Did the Earth once undergo a super ice age, one that froze the entire planet from the poles to the equator? In Snowball Earth, gifted writer Gabrielle Walker has crafted an intriguing global adventure story, following maverick scientist Paul Hoffman’s quest to prove a theory so audacious and profound that it is shaking the world of earth sciences to its core.
In lyrical prose that brings each remote and alluring locale vividly to life, Walker takes us on a thrilling natural history expedition to witness firsthand the supporting evidence Hoffman has pieced together. That evidence, he argues, shows that 700 million years ago the Earth did indeed freeze over completely, becoming a giant “snowball,” in the worst climatic catastrophe in history. Even more startling is his assertion that, instead of ending life on Earth, this global deep freeze was the trigger for the Cambrian Explosion, the hitherto unexplained moment in geological time when a glorious profusion of complex life forms first emerged from the primordial ooze.
In a story full of intellectual intrigue, we follow the irascible but brilliant Hoffman and a supporting cast of intrepid geologists as they scour the planet, uncovering clue after surprising clue. We travel to a primeval lagoon at Shark Bay in western Australia, where dolphins cavort with swimmers every morning at seven and “living rocks” sprout out of the water like broccoli heads; to the desolate and forbidding ice fields of a tiny Arctic archipelago seven hundred miles north of Norway; to the surprising fossil beds that decorate Newfoundland’s foggy and windswept coastline; and on to the superheated salt pans of California’s Death Valley.
Through the contours of these rich and varied landscapes Walker teaches us to read the traces of geological time with expert eyes, and we marvel at the stunning feats of resilience and renewal our remarkable planet is capable of. Snowball Earth is science writing at its most gripping and enlightening.
From the Hardcover edition.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
Good book 2008-10-16
Walker excellently details all sides of the issue, although she admits her pro-Snowball Earth bias in the acknowledgements of the book: `For the past two years or so, I have been a Snowball Earth groupie.' Hoffman is shown as a boor and fanatic, but also impassioned advocate whose hunches seem to have borne fruit. Other scientists are similarly shown in flattering and not so flattering lights, including Hoffman's nemeses, Nick Christie-Blick, of the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, and Martin Kennedy of the University of California, Riverside. Walker's style is more reminiscent of the gonzo journalism of the 1960s than the staid science reporting of recent vintage, and it does wonders for the tale. Here is a typically non-science journal opinion of a part of Newfounndland, one of the many places walker traveled to while compiling this book: `Nobody could love these barren lands, not even their mother. They are dreary and damp, their plants the color of overcooked spinach and rusty nails; when the wind is not buffeting them or rain beating them down, they are shrouded in fog. The pale, thin caribou wander over them like lost souls.' This draws a reader in and disguises its knowledge (medicine) with the sugar of an easy paperback read. The book starts off in the same breezy manner, with a wonderful section describing how Paul Hoffman's lack of true marathoning endurance led him to science and not Olympic laurels.
The weak points in the book are its lack of maps and illustrations. Science works best in transmitting its ideas when visuals are used. No matter how good a writer Walker is, and she's among the best out there, this is a lapse in judgment that any editor should have remedied. Also, there is too narrow a focus on the geology in question, and not enough on biology nor meteorology. It's known, as example, that the sun has been increasing in luminosity since its birth. Yet, the book states that in 250 million or so years another Snowball Earth could occur when a supercontinent forms. But, could that happen with a brighter sun? After all, the last supercontinent, Pangaea, of a quarter billion years ago, left no evidence of a Snowball Earth. Hoffman states it did not last long enough, but, even his theory calls for it to take only a few centuries for a runaway process to begin. That's a blink of an eye, geologically, but well within the time frames needed during Pangaea's several million year continental get-together. Little things like this, however, will provide the holes that a newer, younger version of Hoffman will need to debunk the Snowball Earth once it becomes dogma.
One need only look at the success of the Luis Alvarez K-T Impactor theory as the cause of dinosaur extinction to see theory quickly become dogma, then unravel. It was derided, soared to near universal acceptance in the late 1980s, but now is slowly rotting away under the evidence that volcanoes, and possible genetic stagnation were as responsible, if not more so, than the Impactor. Another rather small downside of the book is the denigration of rival theories that explain some of the things that the Snowball earth theory does not, mainly the Slushball Earth theory, even though some of the gaps, to a lay eye, seem big enough to warrant a more balanced presentation.
Yet, Walker triumphs above it all. This is a first-rate book, and I hope Walker has a long career ahead of her, for science depends on an engaged public, and to achieve such their need to be the explainers, as Walker, who are every bit as good at what they do as the thinkers, like Hoffman and company are. And, given these benighted times, we need a good healthy scientific community more than ever.
Beyond lyrical science, the art of honest contemporary history of science 2008-08-29
At first, it starts like a paper in National Geographic, then your interest is growing and after page 100, you may not stop reading it.
Beyond the chronological order, the chapters appear in a well structured progression reviewing the different domains involved the the snowball theory: geology, climatology, sedimentology, biology,..
Almost as exciting as J. Watson's "The double Helix" this book is much more honest too. The author shows the role of the personalities, their conflicts and the difficulties to built a new large theory. It also shows how geology differs from other hard experimental sciences, because they deal with a single long historic process: the story of Earth.
Eventually, geologists' lives are far more interesting and sometimes adventurous compared to the common university folk.
engrossing science story  2007-04-10
As its title suggests, this is a book about a remarkable theory: that several times in its ancient history, the earth was literally a dirty snowball. Gabrielle Walker provides a highly readable account of the story and personalities behind this revolutionary idea. SNOWBALL EARTH is aimed at the curious layman, not the specialist. Even so, the author does an impressive job explaining the evidence for the theory without distorting the essentials or condescending to the reader.
There's little in the way of charts or pictures to supplement the book's text, and that's unfortunate. I'm tempted to dock it a star for its dearth of graphics, but this compact volume contains such a wealth of content at so little cost, that it's a forgivable omission. Maybe this situation could be amended in a future edition.
In my view, one of the best things about SNOWBALL EARTH is its colorful cast of characters. Too many science writers ignore the human element or depict researchers as passionless data processors wrapped in lab coats. Refreshingly, Walker eschews this approach and offers intimate and unvarnished glimpses of these people in the field or interacting with peers. Her reporting shows her subjects to be a diverse lot. Some are kind-hearted, almost angelic beings; others are aloof and argumentative. Most seem a complex mix of good and bad, like the rest of us. What they all have in common, however, is a burning need to solve the riddle of the earth's mysterious past. The author deserves high marks for adding a psychological twist to this fascinating tale of scientific achievement.
It's informative and fun to read, but the author needs to change her attitude on how to report on science!!  2007-03-23
So, while debate on the Snowball Earth goes on and gets more and more sophisticated in academic hallways and at conference venues, we start to get the popularized versions for the laypublic! At least that means geology can be fun.... Good news for getting grants!
After reading this nice book, I'm at a loss whether giving it one star or five... (So we make it three and that's it! Solved...) It really makes for a good read, it's gripping in pace, clear in the narrative, entertaining in the many little stories that flow into the big one in the end.. And Gabrielle Walker knows how to write, for sure. In the end one has a feeling that not only the core, but also the various facets, of the Snowball hypothesis have been addressed and explained a little... Good job then!
And that's the five stars... But now more about the one star. Not because I want to be nasty, but because addressing the problems can be more important than lingering on the good sides sometimes... Well, I mean, Miss Walker has won enough prizes and accolades for her science journalism, she doesn't need little anonymous me too into that chorus??
Well... The disappointing part of the book lies exactly in its being entertaining!! I found too much emphasis on the people, the stories and anecdotes about individual scientists, and too little hard science. Too many romantic digressions on landscapes and memories, not one single diagram or hand-drawing to accompany concepts that might remain obscure to the layreader if left only to words.. Because she definitely didn't spend much words in trying to explain the basic principles at the foundations of the science she's talking about! There are no fewer than 5 pages about the author's recollections (!) of getting lost in the Namibian bush... Not one single page to explain the general workings of Earth's climate system... (Which is, after all, the main point of the whole book??)
The layreader may end up confused while trying to pick up bits of science from between the novelistic parts, and reconstruct the puzzle for him- or herself. Well, if this was intended to be a popularizing essay on the subject, then it's a major issue I think...
In addition... Gabrielle Walker dispassionately sides for those proposing and supporting the Snowball stuff, and too quickly "writes past" the critics. She declares herself a Snowball groupie right from the very first line, which doesn't promise good in terms of objectivity, does it... Well, science is done with data and evidence, and there's too much attachment to certain positions on the part of the author to feel sure she carefully evaluated all the ideas in an impartial way while recounting the whole story. This is also, in the end, why the book reads so pleasantly. But assuming an emotional position about a topic, and especially about those who argue about it, isn't the best start to commit oneself as an objective reviewer..
Last, but not least! Although admittedly it sounds more like just a personal note... I am getting quite fed up with this thing about Earth scientists being scared of breaking the "uniformitarian" taboo! And even more fed up when this simplistic assumption is introduced for the millionth time with the banalized account of how ideas developed on the dinosaurs-meteorite controversy. Which is still far from being totally solved, by the way, even if the media people like to think otherwise.. We do not hold fast to ancient concepts about the development of the Earth, and we don't need to be shaken out of our disbelief by the rhetoric and the passion of adventurous pioneers into new, extraordinary branches of geology... We only need sensible collections of evidence, accompanied by just as sensible sets of explanations... Then yes, you have acceptance of a new theory by the scientific community. It can be that simple...
Which means, for instance, that the recent objections raised by Nick Eyles from Toronto to the Snowball bandwagon, based on very basic and important principles of sedimentary geology, count more than how deeply Hoffman and mates "believe" into their working hypotheses... Facts and reasoning can be enough to justify informed skepticism even in the face of how new fantastic ideas would make our world seem a lot more fun to study and tell about...
So, yes, in spite of feeling offended when called just a "tourist" in this big geological controversy by Hoffman (pag. 143 of the hardback edition), Miss Walker has to face the fact of still being actually just a tourist here. At least as long as she doesn't develop the right approach to analyze this kind of controversies. She's not one of us... And you can feel it only too well in the book after all!
(And it would help in her career as a science essayist if she learned the fundamental difference between "hypothesis" and "theory"... Because in these days of rampant ignorance and counterscientific movement, especially in certain big countries in the West, the layreader could use clarification on how scientists actually think... Would favor the acceptance of a few important concepts that science advanced about our world and lives, but that are still mired down into the swamps of religion, pseudoscience and plain old misunderstanding...)
Sounds bad, but like I said in the start, I actually enjoyed the book very much and recommend it heartily for all those who want to learn about this interesting geological debate. Just watch out for the points I mentioned above.....
Theory yes, data kind of 2007-03-18
As previous reviewers state, this is more about the story of the development of the theory and the interaction among scientists during this development. This book can be appreciated by the layman or scientist. I downgraded the evaluation from 5 to four stars because there is no data other than verbal explanations. Not a graph, chart, table, illustration, or even a photograph. The author visited some of the field sites discused in the book, along with the scientist whose research covered the site, but not even one photo.
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