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Clerical:
Homework #1 is due this Friday (1/21/11). Please complete this ASAP if you haven't already!
Homework #2 is posted.
Homework #3 is posted. Please read it over by Tuesday of next week.
Quizzes 1-4 are posted.
The Exam #1 Study Guide is posted.
Themes of the Day:
- The Five Fundamental Concepts:
- Human Population Growth
- Sustainability
- Earth as a System
- Hazardous Earth Processes
- Scientific Knowledge and Values
Human Population Growth
- World Population
- The Population Bomb -
by Paul Erlich - Population Control or Race to Oblivion?
For an alternate view see The Ultimate Resource 2 by Julian Simon
- Exponential Growth
- Thomas Malthus - population, unchecked, increases geometrically, while subsistence only increases arithmetically
- growth rate - birth rate vs. death rate
- doubling time - D = 70/G
- Good News - rate of growth has peaked and is in decline
- What to do?
- birth control - voluntary vs. compulsory
- death control - yeah, right. See: Logan's Run
- do nothing - live with the consequences
Sustainability
- renewable vs. non-renewable resources
- technological innovation
Earth as a System
- Systems Concept - everything is interconnected on some level - unintended consequences
- Input-Output Analysis
- Gaia Hypothesis
Hazardous Earth Processes
- Floods
- Earthquakes
- Landslides
- Volcanic Eruptions
- Climate Change(?)
- Many more
Scientific Knowledge and Values
- The Scientific Method in Geology
- Observation
- Defining a Problem
- Creating a Hypothesis (educated guess)
- Testing the Hypothesis - direct tests in geology often hindered by issues of TIME and SCALE
- By Experiments
- By Modelling (where Time and Scale preclude direct testing)
- By Evaluating Predictions
- Analyze Results of Tests
- If tests confirm hypothesis - Go out and celebrate on Friday night. On Monday devise another test.
- If tests refute hypothesis - Drown your sorrows on Friday night. Work through the weekend. Either scrap or modify hypothesis. Back to square one.
- Theory results from widely accepted, time-tested hypothesis (often applied to a group of related hypotheses)
- Laws and proofs are for math and physics - rarely encountered in geology.
- Paradigms - model of reality - a framework of hypotheses and theories that represent the best synthesis of the current understanding of a science
- Publish or Perish. For a couple of really insightful essays on the scientific method, take the time to read
Whatever Happened to Cold Fusion? and
How Science Works (PDF format) by David Goodstein. On a
lighter note, here's a guide on How To
Write A Scientific Paper from the Annals of Improbable Research (AIR).
- Geologic Time Scale and Rates of Geologic Processes - Table 1.3
- Culture and Environmental Awareness
- Science and Values
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