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Blights, Rusts, and Rots Never Sleep: A Look at Forestry and Agriculture, Biological Warfare, and the Global Impact of Fungal Disease

Nicholas P. Money

in Triumph of the Fungi: A Rotten History

This chapter explores the future of the ongoing competition between humans and fungi for control of the biosphere. The emerging diseases of white pine blister rust, sudden oak death, jarrah dieback, ... More

This chapter explores the future of the ongoing competition between humans and fungi for control of the biosphere. The emerging diseases of white pine blister rust, sudden oak death, jarrah dieback, soybean rust, and rice blast offer useful perspectives on the planet’s rotten present and rotten future. The use of fungi as agents of agricultural and biological warfare is also featured. The global impact of fungal disease is highlighted, with the idea that a fungal super-pathogen of Cretaceous plants may have contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs.Less

Subjective Local Preferentism about Happiness

Fred Feldman

in What Is This Thing Called Happiness?

Preferentism is the view that the concept of happiness can be explicated by appeal to the concepts of desire and satisfaction. There are subjective as well as objective forms. According to a typical ... More

Preferentism is the view that the concept of happiness can be explicated by appeal to the concepts of desire and satisfaction. There are subjective as well as objective forms. According to a typical objective form of preferentism, a person's level of happiness is equal to the extent to which his desires are satisfied. In this chapter a form of subjective preferentism due to Wayne Davis is explained. Arguments are presented to show that this form of preferentism goes wrong in certain types of case. Happiness involves more than just the belief that things are going as you want them to be going. Preferentism confronts a near‐paradox. This involves a person who has one desire: the desire to be unhappy. Davis's theory seems to imply (given certain natural assumptions) that this person believes he is happy if and only if he believes he is unhappy.Less

EPILOGUE: New Deal Landscapes in the Environmental Era

Neil M. Maher

in Nature's New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Enviromental Movement

The final chapter traces the CCC's legacy into the post–World War II period. It does so by focusing on the controversy, during the mid-to-late 1940s, surrounding the Bureau of Reclamation's plan to ... More

The final chapter traces the CCC's legacy into the post–World War II period. It does so by focusing on the controversy, during the mid-to-late 1940s, surrounding the Bureau of Reclamation's plan to construct a hydroelectric dam in Dinosaur National Monument's Echo Park, which straddles the Utah—Colorado border. While environmental historians have long viewed the defeat of the Echo Park dam as one of the founding moments of the American environmental movement, this chapter argues that this victory by environmentalists was predicated on the Corps and its conservation work during the New Deal period. For instance, during the 1930s the CCC developed Dinosaur National Monument for outdoor recreation, a process that later brought outdoor enthusiasts into the anti-dam camp. Criticism of Corps conservation work during the early 1940s, however, raised public concern about the destruction of wilderness and ecological balance in the region as well. When the federal government announced plans for the Echo Park dam during the late 1940s, these concerns resurfaced and guided environmentalist opposition. This chapter ends by discussing the declining power of the federal government within postwar conservation, and concludes, somewhat ironically, that the strong hand of the New Deal helped make what eventually became environmentalism a more democratic movement.Less

The Legacies of Hetch Hetchy

Robert W. Righter

in The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism

The legacies of Hetch Hetchy are numerous. Without the fight, American national parks might be administered by the US Forest Service. The fight was instrumental in the passage of the National Parks ... More

The legacies of Hetch Hetchy are numerous. Without the fight, American national parks might be administered by the US Forest Service. The fight was instrumental in the passage of the National Parks Act of 1916, establishing the National Park Service and defining the mission of American national parks. Also without the Hetch Hetchy fight, dams may have been built in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, Dinosaur National Monument, and on either end of Grand Canyon National Park. Over the years, the Hetch Hetchy fight has raised the consciousness of a nation. For the first time the nation questioned the meaning of progress, and in a sense, Hetch Hetchy was a national awakening. Since 1913, the fight has often been used by conservationists as an example of what should not happen to a spectacular mountain valley located in a national park.Less

Apart from Universes

David Deutsch

in Many Worlds?: Everett, Quantum Theory, and Reality

A collection of classical universes — even if they interact — is still classical. For instance, it doesn't have entanglement; its elements don't have phases to their amplitudes; it doesn't have ... More

A collection of classical universes — even if they interact — is still classical. For instance, it doesn't have entanglement; its elements don't have phases to their amplitudes; it doesn't have continuous motion of discrete observables. The multiverse is not classical: it consists of much more than universes. Research into what is there in addition has already been fruitful and promises to be more so. Progress in understanding the quantum world more deeply through such research is also the key to resolving the long-running scandal of the slow take-up of Everett's theory by physicists and philosophers.Less

Pachycephalosauria

Teresa Maryanska, Ralph E. Chapman, and David B. Weishampel

in The Dinosauria

Pachycephalosauria is a group of bipedal ornithischians with thickened bones of the skull roof. The group is widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, mostly in western North America and ... More

Pachycephalosauria is a group of bipedal ornithischians with thickened bones of the skull roof. The group is widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere, mostly in western North America and central Asia, but also in Europe. This chapter examines the anatomy, phylogeny, and paleobiology of pachycephalosaurians. Pachycephalosaurians are often called dome-headed or thick-headed dinosaurs. They were bipedal herbivores with unspecialized teeth and their necks were thick and short. Pachycephalosaurians also have weakly curved dorsal ribs, broad pelvis, widely spaced femora, and unusually long ribs on the proximal caudal vertebrae, which indicate that they had a bulky trunk and a heavy tail.Less

Dinosaur Extinction

J. David Archibald and David E. Fastovsky

in The Dinosauria

The disappearance of nonavian dinosaurs is only a small part of a greater class of extinctions known as “mass extinctions.” Mass extinctions are global events characterized by unusually high rates of ... More

The disappearance of nonavian dinosaurs is only a small part of a greater class of extinctions known as “mass extinctions.” Mass extinctions are global events characterized by unusually high rates of extinction. The five episodes of mass extinctions in Earth history are the Permo-Triassic extinction, the Late Ordovician extinction, the Late Devonian extinction, the Triassic-Jurassic extinction, and the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) extinction. This chapter focuses on patterns of geologic and biotic changes that occurred during the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) extinction. It also highlights the similarities and differences in interpretations of geologic and fossil records. It concludes with two scenarios explaining the differing views about dinosaur extinction.Less

Soil Development in the Jornada Basin

H. Curtis Monger

in Structure and Function of a Chihuahuan Desert Ecosystem: The Jornada Basin Long-Term Ecological Research Site

Soils of the Jornada Basin are the substrate on which Jornada ecosystems reside and interact. Understanding soils and plant–soil feedback processes have been integral ... More

Soils of the Jornada Basin are the substrate on which Jornada ecosystems reside and interact. Understanding soils and plant–soil feedback processes have been integral to understanding vegetation change and desertification (Buffington and Herbel 1965; Schlesinger et al. 1990). Formal studies of Jornada soils extend back to 1918. The most detailed study of Jornada soils is the USDA-SCS Desert Soil-Geomorphology Project (Gile et al. 1981), a 400-mi2 study area that includes the southernmost areas of the Jornada Experimental Range (JER) and Chihuahuan Desert Rangeland Research Center (CDRRC). This chapter highlights findings of soil and geomorphology studies, discusses factors and processes of soil development, and lists several ways soils of the Jornada Basin carry a memory of past climates. In addition to the Veatch (1918) study and the Desert Soil-Geomorphology Project, other investigations of soil types in the Jornada Basin include three soil surveys by the Soil Conservation Service: the first was of Jornada Experimental Range (SCS 1963), the second was of the White Sands Missile Range that includes the eastern Jornada Basin and San Andres Mountains (Neher and Bailey 1976), and the third was of Doña Ana County (Bulloch and Neher 1980). The 1918 investigation by J.O. Veatch of soils of the Jornada Basin was a reconnaissance study of the Jornada physical landscape. The purpose of the investigation was to make observations on the relation between soils and native vegetation and of the effect of overgrazing on different soil types. Veatch divided the study area into the higher mountain slopes, the foothills, and the Jornada Plain (as he described it, the plain included the currently recognized basin floor and piedmont slope). He recognized that the Jornada Plain was of Pleistocene age and contained extinct lakes with gypsum precipitated from desiccating water. He wrote that little change existed between the soil and subsoil, that “in reality a description of ‘soils’ here is but little more than a description of the various lithologic phases, appearing at the surface of a recent geologic formation.” Less

Dinosaurs at the Table

John R. Horner

in The Paleobiological Revolution: Essays on the Growth of Modern Paleontology

This chapter examines dinosaur paleobiology and the interpretations of dinosaur evolution. It argues that dinosaur paleontologists were among the first to reach the evolutionary high table and ... More

This chapter examines dinosaur paleobiology and the interpretations of dinosaur evolution. It argues that dinosaur paleontologists were among the first to reach the evolutionary high table and provides a summary of the many exciting discoveries made in recent decades. This chapter also highlights the importance of the works of several paleontologists including Edwin Colbert, John Ostrom, and Robert Bakker in revolutionizing the thinking about dinosaurs.Less

In the Wake of the Yellowstone Hotspot

Robert B. Smith and Lee J. Siegel

in Title Pages

Anyone who drives through southern Idaho on Interstates 84 or 15 must endure hours and hundreds of miles of monotonous scenery: the vast, flat landscape of the Snake ... More

Anyone who drives through southern Idaho on Interstates 84 or 15 must endure hours and hundreds of miles of monotonous scenery: the vast, flat landscape of the Snake River Plain. In many areas, sagebrush and solidified basalt lava flows extend toward distant mountain ranges, while in other places, farmers have cultivated large expanses of volcanic soil to grow Idaho’s famous potatoes. Southern Idaho’s topography was not always so dull. Mountain ranges once ran through the region. Thanks to the Yellowstone hotspot, however, the pre-existing scenery was destroyed by several dozen of the largest kind of volcanic eruption on Earth—eruptions that formed gigantic craters, known as calderas, measuring a few tens of miles wide. Some 16.5 million years ago, the hotspot was beneath the area where Oregon, Nevada, and Idaho meet. It produced its first big caldera-forming eruptions there. As the North American plate of Earth’s surface drifted southwest over the hotspot, about 100 giant eruptions punched through the drifting plate, forming a chain of giant calderas stretching almost coo miles from the Oregon—Nevada—Idaho border, northeast across Idaho to Yellowstone National Park in northwest Wyoming. Yellowstone has been perched atop the hotspot for the past 2 million years, and a 45-by-30-mile-wide caldera now forms the heart of the national park. After the ancient landscape of southern and eastern Idaho was obliterated by the eruptions, the swath of calderas in the hotspot’s wake formed the eastern two-thirds of the vast, 50-mile-wide valley now known as the Snake River Plain. The calderas eventually were buried by basalt lava flows and sediments from the Snake River and its tributaries, concealing the incredibly violent volcanic history of the Yellowstone hotspot. Yet we now know that the hotspot created much of the flat expanse of the Snake River Plain. Like a boat speeding through water and creating an arc-shaped wave in its wake, the hotspot also left in its wake a parabola-shaped pattern of high mountains and earthquake activity flanking both sides of the Snake River Plain. Less

Bones and Teeth under the Microscope

Marcelo Sánchez

in Embryos in Deep Time: The Rock Record of Biological Development

The most important piece of equipment for most paleontologists, besides the hammer, is the microscope. The microscope enables the study of the tissue microstructure of fossils, in particular the ... More

The most important piece of equipment for most paleontologists, besides the hammer, is the microscope. The microscope enables the study of the tissue microstructure of fossils, in particular the bone, which has become an important matter of investigation concerning development in extinct taxa. This chapter discusses studies of fossil bone sections; dinosaur growth patterns and the origin of birds; the bones of the moas; bone development and locomotion in extinct species and in Galápagos iguanas; bones, cells, and genes; and the nature of teeth.Less

Conclusion: What's the Rush?

in The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush: Museums and Paleontology in America at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

The second Jurassic dinosaur rush was a race among America's museum paleontologists to find the largest and finest sauropod dinosaur and to mount it for exhibit in a lifelike pose. Great size was ... More

The second Jurassic dinosaur rush was a race among America's museum paleontologists to find the largest and finest sauropod dinosaur and to mount it for exhibit in a lifelike pose. Great size was obviously the special appeal of sauropod dinosaurs. During the second Jurassic dinosaur rush, newspaper accounts of field discoveries routinely touted the extraordinary size—more often than not, greatly exaggerated—of the dinosaur specimens collected by museum paleontologists. This sensationalist newspaper coverage, coupled with the proliferation of mounted dinosaurs in public museums in the early twentieth century, ignited American dinomania. The second Jurassic dinosaur rush also changed the practice of American vertebrate paleontology. In its new museum setting, paleontology found a rich new source of private philanthropic support, often solicited and controlled by entrepreneurial paleontologists such as Henry Fairfield Osborn or administrators like William Jacob Holland.Less

Winsor McCay’s Warped Spaces

J. P. Telotte

in Animating Space: From Mickey to WALL-E

This chapter discusses a series of case studies that are arranged in a rough chronological fashion and focus on the problems and potentials of animating space. It takes a detailed look at the works ... More

This chapter discusses a series of case studies that are arranged in a rough chronological fashion and focus on the problems and potentials of animating space. It takes a detailed look at the works of Winsor McCay, a pioneer animator. It also frames the achievements his most famous and most studied film, Gertie the Dinosaur, which it represents in the context of his other key efforts.Less

Ideas in Dinosaur Paleontology: Resonating to Social and Political Context

David E. Fastovsky

in The Paleobiological Revolution: Essays on the Growth of Modern Paleontology

This chapter examines the social and political meaning of dinosaur paleontology in popular culture. It considers three case studies: the paleobiology of the large theropod T. rex, the discovery of ... More

This chapter examines the social and political meaning of dinosaur paleontology in popular culture. It considers three case studies: the paleobiology of the large theropod T. rex, the discovery of dinosaur maternity, nests, eggs, and embryos, and the dinosaur extinction. The analysis reveals that important discoveries about the biology, behavior, and extinction of dinosaurs were influenced not just by empirical developments, but also by the social climate of the times in which they were produced.Less

Obsolescence

David Ehrenfeld

in Swimming Lessons: Keeping Afloat in the Age of Technology

At the end of the Cretaceous period, the last dinosaurs disappeared from the earth, setting off an evolutionary jubilee among the Milquetoast-like mammals ... More

At the end of the Cretaceous period, the last dinosaurs disappeared from the earth, setting off an evolutionary jubilee among the Milquetoast-like mammals that survived them, and preparing the ground for what was to become, 65 million years later, a permanent source of gainful occupation for scientists whose job it is to wonder why the dinosaurs died out. Scores of reasons have been given for this remarkable concatenation of extinctions. Global climate and sea level were changed by a city-sized asteroid striking the earth near what is now the Yucatan, or by a massive set of volcanic eruptions, or by the solar system passing through the core of a giant molecular cloud, perhaps colliding with a supercomet loosened from the Oort cluster, which orbits the Sun beyond Pluto. Theories of catastrophic extinction abound. Some of the most daring even conjure up the specter of an unseen companion star to our Sun, named Nemesis, whose eccentric orbit brings a wave of potentially deadly comet showers—and extinctions—every 26 million years. But there are also paleontologists who argue that the dinosaurs went away gradually, not suddenly, over a period of millions of years, and that toward the end they coexisted with the earliest hooved mammals, including ancestors of horses, cows, and sheep. If extinction was gradual, a different line of thought opens up: perhaps the dinosaurs died out because they couldn’t adapt and compete in a changing world. The big lummoxes were obsolete. I heard about the dinosaurs’ obsolescence back in my student days. It was as satisfying a notion then as it is today, especially if you didn’t think about it too hard. Here were these lumbering, pea-brained reptiles, barely able to walk and chew gum at the same time, while all around and underneath them, cleverly hiding behind clumps of primitive vegetation and cleverly burrowing in tunnels in the ground, were the nerdy but smart little mammals about to emerge from the shadows and begin their ascent to glory—somewhat, it occurs to me now, like Bill Gates in the waning days of heavy manufacturing. Less

Social Evolution versus Sudden Change

David Ehrenfeld

in Swimming Lessons: Keeping Afloat in the Age of Technology

In an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, meeting at the Vatican on October 22, 1996, Pope John Paul II accepted the theory of evolution, thus ... More

In an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, meeting at the Vatican on October 22, 1996, Pope John Paul II accepted the theory of evolution, thus bringing to an official end, for the Catholic Church, the most bitter and most persistent of all debates between science and religion. “New knowledge,” John Paul said, “has lead to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis.” He qualified his statement somewhat by pointing out that there are many readings of evolution, “materialist, reductionist, and [his preference] spiritualist interpretations.” Still, we must not quibble; the Pope has endorsed slow evolutionary change, Darwinian evolution, as the likely way that nature modifies all living creatures, including all human beings. Fashioning us in the image of God, the Pope appears to believe, took a very, very long time. The dust has not yet settled on the great evolution war, nor will it settle soon. A few intelligent scientists are still not convinced that evolutionary theory explains the species richness of our planet and the amazing adaptations, such as eyes, wings, and social behavior, of its in-habitants. There also remain powerful religious orthodoxies that show no sign of giving up the fight for creationist theology. A second war about evolution is now being waged, an invisible, un-publicized struggle between a different set of protagonists; it is a war whose outcome will affect our lives and civilization more directly than the original controversy ever did. The new protagonists are not science and traditional religion; instead, they are the corporate apostles of the religion of progress versus those surviving groups and individuals committed to slow social evolution as a way of life. To understand this other struggle, it is necessary to look at evolution in a broad context that transcends biology. Not just a way of explaining how the camel got her hump or how the elephant got his trunk, the idea of evolution can also be applied to the writing of a play that “evolves” in the mind of the playwright or the “evolution” of treaties, banking systems, and anything else that changes over time in a non random direction. Less