Rating: 
Summary: The founder of geology was a devout Christian
Review: This well-written and mercifully brief account of the life of Nicholaus Steno helps demonsrate yet again that Christians can be very fine scientists. The issue that Steno resolved was the organic origin of fossils. Steno was trained as an anatomist, and he was extremely gifted with a scalpel. When a very large (2,800 pound) shark was caught by Italian fisherman, Steno's patron, Ferdinando de Medici had the head sent to Steno for disection. Steno noted the uncanny resemblance of the shark's teeth to fossils called "tongue stones" found in greatest abundance on the Island of Malta. Steno argued that "tongue stones" looked like sharks' teeth because they were sharks' teeth that had been buried in sediment, the sediment subsequently hardening into stone. This seems obvious today, but it was anything but obvious in Steno's time. Many argued that the earth had some sort of "plastic power" that produced stones in the shapes of sea creatures, or anything else. It didn't seem possible that fossils found on mountaintops many miles from the ocean could be the remains of real sea creatures, no matter how closely they resemble those creatures. And then there was also the problem of extinct forms, fossils that didn't correspond to any living creatures. The idea that God would allow any of his creatures to die out completely was unacceptable to many thinkers of Steno's day. The fossil problem led Steno to meditate on question of how any solid object, like a fossil, could be found with another solid object, like a layer of rock. He concluded that the fossil must have been hard first, and must have been carried along by waterborne sediments that subsequently came to rest, creating a layer of mud, enclosing the fossil and later hardening into rock. Hence, a solid fossil came to be enclosed within a layer of solid rock. An interesting fact that emerges from this book is that Steno, essentially a creationist who never wrote anything that contradicted Scripture, laid the foundations for the science of geology. Cutler seems at pains to try to claim Steno's legacy for modern long-ages geology, but the age of the earth was never any part of Steno's argument. Moreover, the person who did the most to popularize Steno's view of the organic origin of fossils in the English-speaking world (without giving Steno proper credit) was John Woodward, an even more outspoken creationist who argued that the fossils had been buried in Noah's flood. Meanwhile, the famous skeptic Voltaire argued that fossils were spontaneously generated within the earth. In fact, Voltaire was still making that argument many decades after Steno had proven the contrary case. Meanwhile, Steno abandoned science and spent his final years ministering to the small Roman Catholic minority in northern Germany. It just goes to show that religious faith does not a bad scientist make, nor does skepticism make a good one.
Rating:
Summary: The founder of geology was a devout Christian
Review: This well-written and mercifully brief account of the life of Nicholaus Steno helps demonsrate yet again that Christians can be very fine scientists. The issue that Steno resolved was the organic origin of fossils. Steno was trained as an anatomist, and he was extremely gifted with a scalpel. When a very large (2,800 pound) shark was caught by Italian fisherman, Steno's patron, Ferdinando de Medici had the head sent to Steno for disection. Steno noted the uncanny resemblance of the shark's teeth to fossils called "tongue stones" found in greatest abundance on the Island of Malta. Steno argued that "tongue stones" looked like sharks' teeth because they were sharks' teeth that had been buried in sediment, the sediment subsequently hardening into stone. This seems obvious today, but it was anything but obvious in Steno's time. Many argued that the earth had some sort of "plastic power" that produced stones in the shapes of sea creatures, or anything else. It didn't seem possible that fossils found on mountaintops many miles from the ocean could be the remains of real sea creatures, no matter how closely they resemble those creatures. And then there was also the problem of extinct forms, fossils that didn't correspond to any living creatures. The idea that God would allow any of his creatures to die out completely was unacceptable to many thinkers of Steno's day. The fossil problem led Steno to meditate on question of how any solid object, like a fossil, could be found with another solid object, like a layer of rock. He concluded that the fossil must have been hard first, and must have been carried along by waterborne sediments that subsequently came to rest, creating a layer of mud, enclosing the fossil and later hardening into rock. Hence, a solid fossil came to be enclosed within a layer of solid rock. An interesting fact that emerges from this book is that Steno, essentially a creationist who never wrote anything that contradicted Scripture, laid the foundations for the science of geology. Cutler seems at pains to try to claim Steno's legacy for modern long-ages geology, but the age of the earth was never any part of Steno's argument. Moreover, the person who did the most to popularize Steno's view of the organic origin of fossils in the English-speaking world (without giving Steno proper credit) was John Woodward, an even more outspoken creationist who argued that the fossils had been buried in Noah's flood. Meanwhile, the famous skeptic Voltaire argued that fossils were spontaneously generated within the earth. In fact, Voltaire was still making that argument many decades after Steno had proven the contrary case. Meanwhile, Steno abandoned science and spent his final years ministering to the small Roman Catholic minority in northern Germany. It just goes to show that religious faith does not a bad scientist make, nor does skepticism make a good one.
Rating: 
Summary: If a creationist reviewer, then will flat-earthers be next?
Review: Why give the spotlighted review of this fine book to a creationist? I'm sure flat-earthers could find objections to it too. Would you include those too?
Rating:
Summary: On Solids inside of Solids...
Review: Wonderfully written book. An easy read, full of historical quotes and imaginative ideas. This book is great for any science enthusiast. Having never taken a Geology class before, Cutler's biography sparked my imagination of seventeenth-century science and progress! Excellent! 5/5
Rating:
Summary: Sedimentary Edification
Review: Written with obvious gusto, and containing witty and elegant prose that seems to flow by effortlessly, this is popular science at its very best. Nicolaus Steno (aka Niels Stensen in his native Danish) was a gifted dissectionist with a deft touch. He discovered the glands that produce tears (before this discovery, it was thought that when a person got extremely upset their brain leaked water, and this water came out through the eyes as tears!). Branching out from his anatomical studies, he studied seashells embedded in mountains and came to the conclusion that the sediments had been produced in the oceans. He also theorized that either the oceans had once been higher, or the mountains had been uplifted. These conclusions were far from obvious at the time, as the periods necessary to produce thick layers of sediment and to raise mountain ranges would be quite lengthy....which would conflict with interpretations of the Bible which stated that the world was about 6,000 years old. In order to avoid this conflict, many people- rather than admit that seashell fossils were actually seashells- came up with the notion that the "shells" had actually grown right inside the rock. Therefore, they weren't really seashells! Steno was a very religious man (he was born a Protestant but converted to Catholicism) but he didn't believe in interpreting the Bible literally. He eventually gave up science, but not out of any conflict with his religious beliefs. He just believed it was more important to convert Protestants back to the "true faith." The author does a wonderful job of immersing the reader in the intellectual climate of 17th century Europe, so that we can understand the scientific and religious debates detailed in the book. Mr. Cutler also provides interesting and sometimes amusing biographical snapshots of some of the famous people of the time, such as Isaac Newton and the tremendously gifted philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz. (Regarding Leibniz, the author quotes the duchess of Orleans who, after meeting the great man, said "It is so rare for an intellectual to be smartly dressed, and not to smell, and to understand jokes.") If you are at all interested in the history of geology, Mr. Cutler's book is a marvelous addition to the non-technical literature available for the curious layperson.
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