Sex Drugs Disasters And The Extinction Of Dinosaurs Summary

Never have humans had such abundance of information, easily accessible at the touch of a finger. Philosophers, doctors and scientists throughout history have labored their entire lives to study the science of earth, space and life on our planet. Now, with the amazing technological advances we’ve experienced in the last several decades, so many monumental discoveries have shed light on these fields, answering many questions and creating many more. The question now facing many of us in our quest for knowledge is what information is credible. What makes for “good science”? “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs” is an essay authored by Stephen Jay Gould, professor of geology and zoology at Harvard. Gould does a masterful job of catching your attention right away with his title, then taking you on a journey exploring how we can differentiate what is attention-grabbing nonsense and what is valid science. In his essay, Gould explores scientific proposals for the extinction of dinosaurs. This is a question that humanity has pondered for thousands of years, and many speculations have been made. Gould outlines what theories fall into “good” and “bad” science and then explains how he uses the scientific data to build a case for solid, evidence-based theory. …show more content…
When any scientific theory is first conceived and considered, bad science will usually give itself away with it's unsubstantiated claims and scarcity of evidence. On the other hand, Gould suggests, testable proposals and hypotheses that can be tested and measured using the scientific method are examples of good solid science. Good science doesn’t mean that it is perfect or complete but it does follow rational flows of thought, based on evidence and allowing for improvement or corrections as new discoveries are made. Let's take a look at two examples of scientific writing, both illustrating both bad and good