Rating: 
Summary: Night Comes to the Cretaceous
Review: All in all, James Lawrence Powell did a superb job in writing this book. He is highly opinionated and interprets data in a manner to support his fundamental belief (that an asteroid caused the KT extinctions).
I advise readers to get a balanced view by also reading "The Great Dinosaur Extinction Controvery" by Charles Officer and Jack Page. I felt that Powell covered the topic very thoroughly and provided historical context to help the novice extinctions reader. I felt that the book was very weak in dicussing the paleontological aspects of the extinction. Next revision perhaps.
Rating: 
Summary: An excellent book on the workings of science
Review: From the standpoint of scientific fact, this book gives a generic description of the giant Chicxulub meteorite impact structure, its genesis, and the consequences of that genesis; the extinction of the dinosaurs and thousands of other species in a geologic heartbeat. An excellent book-wide discussion attends the determination of the necessary proofs for what, at the time of its origin, was an extraordinary, heretical theory. Author Powell's review of the background science is thorough and unbiased, and is delivered in a readable, easy-to understand manner. The tempo of the book is seamless and non-distractive.
In short. for the reader who simply wants to learn about the reason behind dinosaur extinction, the book is highly recommended, without more.The book is far more significant and insightful in other respects, however. It would serve as a singular text for anyone interested in the history and maturation of ideas, particularly in the scientific realm. Author Powell is simply peerless in demonstrating the difficulty proponents of successful new scientific theories face in having those ideas accepted in the face of long-standing, inflexible orthodoxy. Powell carefully shows the genesis of the Alvarez' impact theory of extinction, as well as cataloguing the tenacious resistance to it. Not only paleontologists, but even some geophysicists, opposed the impact theory of extinction and ridiculed both the theory and its proponents. In the end, however, the sheer weight of demonstative evidence has carried the day for the Alvarez' ideas. Even as this review is written, however, there are those who deny the the dinosaurs went extinct owing to a catastrophic impact. See Discover magazine's June 2002 issue. Whether the asteroid collision was the SOLE cause seems to be the only bone of contention now. Perhaps the most poignant character in this ongoing debate is Charles Officer, a Dartmouth geophysicist. Officer has stood steadfast, in face of increasing evidence to the contrary, as an opponent of the impact/extinction theory. As the book was written, some of his arguments had even reached the point of Creationist-style dogma, brought on by his refusal to yield. Powll presents the tale of Officer's resistance as not being negative, but indeed, positive, in that it forced the impact proponents to a vigorous reexamination and stronger proofs. Any history or science student should read this book. In reading this work, one can gain greater appreciation for the trial and tribulations such scientific pathfinders as Galileo, Newton, Wegener, Bretz, and Shoemaker have faced in advancing our knowledge and understanding of our world, and our place in it. Unhesitatingly, I give this book a five-star rating, and would even more highly recommend it, were I able.
Rating: 
Summary: A very clear account, but of questionable objectivity....
Review: I did't find this book to be a particularly good review of the dinosaurs-vs-meteorite controversy. The narrative is clear and captivating, and accounts of the several open (or closed!) disputes, rooted in disparate fields of Earth sciences, is made accessible to the layreader or those with just a modest background in natural sciences. Nevertheless, Powell holds a one-sided approach right from the beginning, pointlessly crusading against some supposedly general backward attitude in geologists and paleontologists that actually never was there, except for a very few unfortunate cases. Everyone now agrees on evidence for a massive extraterrestrial impact dated around 65 million years ago, but the main issue is presently whether that was the ultimate cause of the mass extinction or other earth-bound factors and feedbacks played a role in driving interactions between physical environment and the biosphere toward a mass extinction. Powell leaves no room for such developments.
In particular, I'd have two specific objections to specific cases presented in the book: 1)On pages 172-174 taxonomic analysis of dinosaur diversity in the highest stratigraphic stages of the Cretaceous in Montana is reported as evidence in favour of a sudden crisis of the original ecosystem. Pete Sheehan and co-workers carried on their studies at the taxonomic rank of families, which resulted numerically stable with time approaching the K-T boundary. Only, John Horner recently reviewed their work at a species level, likely to be statistically and biologically more reliable indicator of biodiversity, and found out a steady decrease of dinosaur types through time. Such reconsideration of Sheehan's research thus reverses evidence against the impact hypothesis! 2) The section "Did impact cause all extinctions?" introduces the final part of the book which has absolutely nothing to do with the K-T event per se, and presents us with Raup's "impact-kill curve" which was originally just an interesting exercise in statistics, but lacking a solid connection with the actual geo-paleontological database of major mass extinctions (let alone minor ones..) and thus oversimplifies the subject. Yet the author all too enthousiastically takes sides with the "impactors" and loses objectivity, even falling in contradiction (Page 192:"Not enough firm evidence is available to corroborate the claim that impact is responsible for any other mass extinction boundary than the K-T event..." Page 196:"..how are we to escape the conclusion that not just in theory, but in practice, impact has caused many extinctions?")
More poignantly however, scientific arguments and debates against the "impact hypothesis" haven't been introduced thoroughly enough but too quickly glossed over, although numerous in the recent scientific literature...
Without deceiving myself of having read a downright objective account, I'm afraid this is the best available book about the (still ongoing...) debate, together with J.D.Archibald's "Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say", which is possibly far more objective though...
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and scientifically literate
Review: I read this book in conjunction with Alvarez' "T. Rex and the Crater of Doom." The writing style in this book is not very polished but the author does a good job reviewing the evidence and detailing the controversies of the K/T comet and its impact on dinosaurs and on contemporary geologists & paleontologists! It does read rather well as a case history of science (as another reviewer suggested) but it is written very much in the tradition of Karl Popper rather than Thomas Kuhn, with hypotheses explicitly stated, falsifying obsevations articulated, and chapter-end summaries of the consensus interpretation of the evidence. Still, the overall message is Kuhnian: the overthrow of a paradigm (Lyell's geological uniformitarianism) by an outsider (a Nobel lauraute physicist & his geologist son). Engaging, scientifically literate, and a real trip to read for the scientific upset (revolution?) that it caused. Alvarez's "T. Rex" is written much better stylistically and is way more fun to read, so read this one for the science.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and scientifically literate
Review: I read this book in conjunction with Alvarez' "T. Rex and the Crater of Doom." The writing style in this book is not very polished but the author does a good job reviewing the evidence and detailing the controversies of the K/T comet and its impact on dinosaurs and on contemporary geologists & paleontologists! It does read rather well as a case history of science (as another reviewer suggested) but it is written very much in the tradition of Karl Popper rather than Thomas Kuhn, with hypotheses explicitly stated, falsifying obsevations articulated, and chapter-end summaries of the consensus interpretation of the evidence. Still, the overall message is Kuhnian: the overthrow of a paradigm (Lyell's geological uniformitarianism) by an outsider (a Nobel lauraute physicist & his geologist son). Engaging, scientifically literate, and a real trip to read for the scientific upset (revolution?) that it caused. Alvarez's "T. Rex" is written much better stylistically and is way more fun to read, so read this one for the science.
Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading for every science student!
Review: James Lawrence Powell's book is a scientific detective story that meticulously, exhaustively, and painstakingly lays out his case for why he thinks the dinosaurs got wiped out by a meteorite impact. And Powell makes his case by combining such disciplines as geology, paleontology, chemistry, ecology, astronomy, and biology. Although many scientists still think the meteor impact theory is "controversial," Powell's diligent research makes his conclusion appear certain. He convinced me! But scientists are human, too, and Powell's book recounts how some scientists rejected this theory so strenuously that they lost their sense of proportion, particularly geophysicist Charles Officer. On pages 216-217, Powell asks, "How far will scientists on the losing end of an argument go? They employ a set of stratagems that seem hauntingly familiar; they are the very ploys used by creationists and others who have no platform or logic." The following examples paraphrase Powell's findings against Charles Officer: 1. Officer's confident assertion: "There IS no evidence for a meteor impact at the KT boundary." 2. His straw men: "Nobody has found big dinosaur piles." 3. His red herrings: "There are similarities between livestock fatalities and dinosaur extinctions." 4. His plea for equal time: "The journal Science published eleven favorable impact articles, but only two against." 5. His blame of the media: "The Earth science community is biased." 6. His impugned motives: "Scientists fabricate theories and evidence." 7. His false alarms: "The meteor impact theory is pathological and dangerous!" Ironically, Powell says that Officer's tireless efforts to debunk the meteor impact theory forced geologists to vigilantly reinforce their case. And in the end, the earth science community has a lot to thank Charles Officer for. But the previous Amazon.com reviewer is wrong when he claims that Powell believes all mass extinctions are attributed to extraterrestrial impacts. Powell does, however, point out that we've found approximately 150 terrestrial impact craters all over the globe, and scientists claim to discover between three and five new craters annually. And these don't include impacts that might've struck the oceans. Also, you only have to look at the surface of every moon and terrestrial planet in our solar system to see that impacts once occurred regularly. And when a three-mile wide chunk of comet Shoemaker Levy 9 struck Jupiter four years ago, it left a massive impact streak as large as the earth itself! And this bolide was only HALF the size of the rock that bore the Chicxulub crater. Powell only suggests the POSSIBILITY that periodic impacts triggered mass extinctions. And he thinks this premise deserves a fair hearing instead of being rejected outright. As a combined scientific detective story and riveting historical account, Powell's book is a masterpiece! Every science student should read it.
Rating:
Summary: Night Comes to the Cretaceous
Review: Night Comes to the Cretaceous: Dinosaur Extinction and the Transformation of Modern Geology wriiten by James Lawrence Powell is a comprehensive work on the powers of scientific reasoning about what happened to the dinosaurs from the information that is available to us. There has been a lot of controversy about what reallly happened to the dinosaurs, after all they ruled the earth for 160 million years and then...poof... they are gone. Why did this happen and was the... poof... not so all of a sudden, but over and entended period of time. We do not know for sure, but we have some very interesting information from this book that will shead some light on the matter. Luis and Walter Alvarez found an interesting clue in the geology of the earth itself. Luis is a Nobel Prize winning physicist and Walter is his son, they found something that would turn the scientific community on its collective ear, that a single random event caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. There is an immense impact crater buried deep in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico that was identified as Ground Zero called Chicxulub or red devil You see what the Alvarez's found was an Iridium layer in the rocks and soil core samples, why would that be so interesting, well, iridium mainly comes from extraterrestrial sources as it is not found in abundance on earth. This iridium layer is found all around the earth at the K-T layer (Cretaceous-Tertiary) at about the right geological time 65 million years ago. Reading this book will fill in a lot of details as it is a masterful work in scientific reasoning. I found it to be a very educational, entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: How Scientific Revolutions Actually Happen
Review: One of the great scientific revolutions of our times has been the recognition that the biological evolution of Earth is influenced random impacts by comets and asteroids. When this concept was put forward in 1980, it was radical; today it is the accepted wisdom in paleontology, geology, and evolutionary biology. Jim Powell tells a fascinating story of the evidence for this transformation and of the scientists who have been protgonists in the struggle to understand this evidence and integrate it into our broader undestanding of our planet. This is one of the best books ever written to trace the history of a scientific controversy and of the people involved, warts and all.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading for every science student!
Review: Powell's book is a scientific detective story that meticulously, exhaustively, and painstakingly lays out his case for why he thinks the dinosaurs got wiped out by a meteorite impact. And Powell makes his case by combining such disciplines as geology, paleontology, chemistry, ecology, astronomy, and biology. Although many scientists still think the meteor impact theory is "controversial," Powell's diligent research makes his conclusion appear certain. He convinced me! But scientists are human, too, and Powell's book recounts how some scientists rejected this theory so strenuously that they lost their sense of proportion, particularly geophysicist Charles Officer. On pages 216-217, Powell asks, "How far will scientists on the losing end of an argument go? They employ a set of stratagems that seem hauntingly familiar; they are the very ploys used by creationists and others who have no platform or logic." The following examples paraphrase Powell's findings against Charles Officer: 1. Officer's confident assertion: "There IS no evidence for a meteor impact at the KT boundary." 2. His straw men: "Nobody has found big dinosaur piles." 3. His red herrings: "There are similarities between livestock fatalities and dinosaur extinctions." 4. His plea for equal time: "The journal Science published eleven favorable impact articles, but only two against." 5. His blame of the media: "The Earth science community is biased." 6. His impugned motives: "Scientists fabricate theories and evidence." 7. His false alarms: "The meteor impact theory is pathological and dangerous!" Ironically, Powell says that Officer's tireless efforts to debunk the meteor impact theory forced geologists to vigilantly reinforce their case. And in the end, the earth science community has a lot to thank Charles Officer for. But the previous Amazon.com reviewer is wrong when he claims that Powell believes all mass extinctions are attributed to extraterrestrial impacts. Powell does, however, point out that we've found approximately 150 terrestrial impact craters all over the globe, and scientists claim to discover between three and five new craters annually. And these don't include impacts that might've struck the oceans. Also, you only have to look at the surface of every moon and terrestrial planet in our solar system to see that impacts once occurred regularly. And when a three-mile wide chunk of comet Shoemaker Levy 9 struck Jupiter four years ago, it left a massive impact streak as large as the earth itself! And this bolide was only HALF the size of the rock that bore the Chicxulub crater. Powell only suggests the POSSIBILITY that periodic impacts triggered mass extinctions. And he thinks this premise deserves a fair hearing instead of being rejected outright. As a combined scientific detective story and riveting historical account, Powell's book is a masterpiece! Every science student should read it.
Rating:
Summary: Dinosaur Extinctions and Paradigm Transitions
Review: This is a most engaging account of the meteor impact theory of dinosaur extinction, the KT boundary. More, it is an account of 'paradigm' dynamics, and its psychology, in action in the development of science. Powell's account points up the contingency factor in evolution, along with the factor of mass extinctions (cf. also, Raub, The Nemesis Affair). However, it is perhaps somewhat confusing to identify this with the actual process of evolution, whose new age of evolution after the extinction is a separate process altogether. The mystery of contingency,causality, sudden evolution,versus stasis remains still mystery, it would seem. The book also has some interesting comments on the idea of punctuated equilbrium near the end. Very enjoyable reading.
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