Correlation Between T. Rex And Processes Of The Nature Of Science Essay Examples

Science is a body of knowledge produced by scientists with emphasis on observation, explanation and prediction of real world occurrences. Since the classical antiquity, empirical investigations of the natural world were used to advance, develop and prove ideas by the likes of Aristotle. Scientific methods were employed during the middle ages by scientists such as Roger Bacon and Ibn al-Haytham to originate and determine scientific ideas. Modern science can be traced back to the 16th and 17th centuries resulting from the scientific revolution, has established science as a source for the growth of knowledge. This knowledge is developed from conception of ideas, which are then scientifically investigated and incorporated into the body of science.
Tyrannosaurus Rex, commonly referred to as T. Rex was one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs that ever lived. Fossils of this dinosaur show that it was twelve meters long and about four to six meters tall with a 1.2 meters long jaw specially designed for crushing bones. It lived throughout present-day western North America and got extinct about sixty five million years ago. T. Rex was among the species that got extinct during the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction.
The cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction was initially advanced as a hypothesis by Walter Alvarez, a geologist and professor at the University of California. Walter was of the idea that this extinction that happened around 65 million years ago resulted from an asteroid’s collision with the earth. Documented in his book, ‘T. Rex and the Crater of Doom’, Alvarez suggests that an asteroid, about 10 kilometers in diameter hit the surface of the earth at a speed of about 30 kilometers per second leaving a crater, 150 – 200 kilometers wide and about 40 kilometers deep. This event was the genesis of a massive extinction that led to the wiping out of approximately 75 percent of all species from the face of the earth.
Dating back to the inception of modern science, scientific ideas are derived from observation. For example, the law of gravity was derived from observing the way a fruit fell from a tree. These ideas are then evaluated through a series of experiments and tests to ascertain their logic and to offer a scientific explanation. Evaluation aims at approving or disapproving a hypothesis. A scientific idea is thus pegged on a hypothesis upon which the scientists intend to approve of.
Walter Alvarez and his father, Luis Alvarez advanced the theory of extinction after observing a clay layer that occurred at the boundary of the Cretaceous-Tertiary. This layer was enriched with the element iridium, common on asteroids but very uncommon on earth. With this, they postulated that the creation of this layer resulted from the impact of a huge asteroid with the earth and its effects being the likely cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction. Like any other scientific idea, Walter’s idea begun from an observation. However, for this to hold, it had to be evaluated and approved by other scientists as well as be accompanied by a logical explanation.
Modern science is a collective effort by a community of scientists. Scientific ideas, their evaluation and development, are a collaborative endeavor by scientists across the globe. Following Walter’s observation, the same iridium enrichment has been observed in many other sites around the world by different scientists. This goes a long way to collaborate Walter’s observation. To explain the asteroid collision event as the genesis of the extinction, Walter, in his book, goes ahead to explain the events that followed. In the zone where the bedrock was melted and vaporized resulting from the impact, no living thing could have survived. The earth’s surface literally ignited, immolated, cooked and charred all trees and animals not sheltered in holes and under rocks. On the other hand, the impact resulted in a tsunami at least a kilometer high and within hours, most of the United States and Mexico were reduced to a desolate wasteland of the most agonizing and appalling destruction.
In a further collaborative effort, scientists seek to find proof that affirms scientific ideas. This forms part of evaluation and development of scientific ideas. In the case of Walter’s Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction theory, scientists identified the Chicxulub crater. This is regarded as the definitive evidence of a huge impact. This, combined with Walter’s continued explanation of later effects of the impact laid a firm foundation to the theory of the mass extinction. In his book, Walter explains how the earth begun turning dark and cold as a result of the impact. Dust was settling in the northern hemisphere blocking the sun from the earth. Carbon dioxide had been trapped in the atmosphere raising the heat to unbearable levels and eventually resulting in acid rain. The sequence of a world, first frozen and dark, then deadly hot and poisoned with acid rain and soot created grounds for an enormous extinction. The most affected species were the dinosaurs majorly because of their position in the food chain.
Science aims at generating factual and scientifically logical knowledge geared towards explaining natural phenomena and forming predictions. The works of Walter Alvarez and the host of other scientists involved have created a scientific basis for the explanation of extinction and by extension, evolution as documented in his book. This constitutes development of scientific ideas once they have been evaluated and largely accepted by majority of scientists.
In conclusion, the genesis of scientific ideas stems from observation of the seen and the unseen. This is chronologically followed by approval of hypothesis by evaluation through tests and experiments. The results of evaluation have to be corresponded by other scientists for them to be accepted. It is therefore largely a collaborative agenda where the work of a particular scientist has to be approved or disapproved by his/her peers. Science operates in a community and so does the ideas that form the foundations of its knowledge.