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Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe
Paperback. 14,00 / 21,00 cm. In Turkish. 408 p. 66 milyon yil önce, sehir büyüklügünde bir cisim uzaydan Dünya'ya düsmüs; gezegenimiz üzerindeki türlerin üçte ikisiyle birlikte dinozorlari öldüren bir felakete yol açmisti. Lisa Randall bunun bir kuyrukluyildiz oldugunu ö Günes sistemimiz Samanyolu düzlemindeki karanlik madde diskinden geçerken, karanlik maddenin etkisi bu kuyrukluyildizi yörüngesinden çikarmis olabilir. Randall karanlik maddenin dogasi hakkindaki varsayimlara meydan okuyor ve bilim insanlarinin yeni fikirleri nasil ortaya atip formüle ettiklerini gösteriyor. "Karanlik Madde ve Dinozorlar bir popüler bilim saheseri. Bilimsel arastirmanin dogasini aydinlatan bir dedektiflik öyküsü..." Kip Thorne, Yildizlararasi Bilimi'nin yazari "Dünyaca ünlü fizikçi Lisa Randall en eski gizemlerden birisini, karanlik maddenin dogasini gözler önüne seriyor." Max Tegmark, Matematiksel Evren'in yazari "Öykücülük ile bilimsel bilgi aktarmayi harika bir sekilde birlestiren bir kitap." Wall Street Journal "Meselenin tamamini görmemizi saglayan bilimsel bir anlati." New York Times Book Review
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First published October 27, 2015
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About the author
Lisa Randall
15 books478 followersLISA RANDALL is Professor of Physics at Harvard University. She began her physics career at Stuyvesant High School in New York City. She was a finalist, and tied for first place, in the National Westinghouse Science Talent Search. She went on to Harvard where she earned the BS (1983) and PhD (1987) in physics. She was a President's Fellow at the University of California at Berkeley, a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and a junior fellow at Harvard University. She joined the MIT faculty in 1991 as an assistant professor, was promoted to associate professor in 1995 and received tenure in 1997. Between 1998 and 2001 she had a joint appointment at Princeton and MIT as a full professor. She moved to Harvard as a full professor in 2001.
She was the 1st tenured woman in physics at Princeton; the 1st tenured woman theorist in science at Harvard and at MIT. She's the most cited theoretical physicist in the world in the last five years as of last autumn — a total of about 10,000 citations. In this regard, she is most known for two papers: "A Large mass Hierarchy From a Small Extra Dimension" (2500 citations); and and "An Alternative to Compactification" (about 2500 citations). Both concern "Warped Geometry/Spacetime" and show that infinite extra dimension and weakness of gravity can be explained with an extra dimension.
Lisa Randall’s research in theoretical high energy physics is primarily related to the question of what is the physics underlying the standard model of particle physics. This has involved studies of strongly interacting theories, supersymmetry, and most recently, extra dimensions of space. In this latter work, she investigates “warped” geometries. The focus of this work has been a particular class of theories based on five-dimensional AdS space which has the remarkable property that the graviton is localized and the space need not be compactified. Related work demonstrates that this theory yields a very natural resolution to the hierarchy problem of particle physics (the large ratio of the Planck and electroweak scales) and furthermore, is compatible with unification of gauge couplings. This latter class of theories suggests interesting experimental tests. The study of further implications of this work has involved string theory, holography, and cosmology. Lisa Randall also continues to work on supersymmetry and other beyond-the-standard-model physics.
Within a year of her work on extra dimensions, it was featured on the front page of the Science Times section of The New York Times. It has also been featured in the Economist, the New Scientist, Science,Nature, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Daily News, a BBC Horizons television program, BBC radio, and other news sources. She has also been also been interviewed because Science Watch and the ISI Essential Science Indicators have indicated her research as some of the best cited in all of science.
http://edge.org/memberbio/lisa_randall
She was the 1st tenured woman in physics at Princeton; the 1st tenured woman theorist in science at Harvard and at MIT. She's the most cited theoretical physicist in the world in the last five years as of last autumn — a total of about 10,000 citations. In this regard, she is most known for two papers: "A Large mass Hierarchy From a Small Extra Dimension" (2500 citations); and and "An Alternative to Compactification" (about 2500 citations). Both concern "Warped Geometry/Spacetime" and show that infinite extra dimension and weakness of gravity can be explained with an extra dimension.
Lisa Randall’s research in theoretical high energy physics is primarily related to the question of what is the physics underlying the standard model of particle physics. This has involved studies of strongly interacting theories, supersymmetry, and most recently, extra dimensions of space. In this latter work, she investigates “warped” geometries. The focus of this work has been a particular class of theories based on five-dimensional AdS space which has the remarkable property that the graviton is localized and the space need not be compactified. Related work demonstrates that this theory yields a very natural resolution to the hierarchy problem of particle physics (the large ratio of the Planck and electroweak scales) and furthermore, is compatible with unification of gauge couplings. This latter class of theories suggests interesting experimental tests. The study of further implications of this work has involved string theory, holography, and cosmology. Lisa Randall also continues to work on supersymmetry and other beyond-the-standard-model physics.
Within a year of her work on extra dimensions, it was featured on the front page of the Science Times section of The New York Times. It has also been featured in the Economist, the New Scientist, Science,Nature, The Los Angeles Times, The Dallas Daily News, a BBC Horizons television program, BBC radio, and other news sources. She has also been also been interviewed because Science Watch and the ISI Essential Science Indicators have indicated her research as some of the best cited in all of science.
http://edge.org/memberbio/lisa_randall
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November 9, 2023
Give yourself to the Dark Side. It is the only way you can save your friends. - D. VaderLisa Randall, a Harvard Science professor, member of the National Academy of Sciences, named one of the 100 Most Influential People by Time Magazine in 2007, and author of three previous books, likes to think big. She also likes to think small. Her areas of expertise are particle physics and cosmology, which certainly covers a range. The big look she offers here is a cosmological take on not only how it came to pass that a large incoming did in the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, but why such decimations of life on Earth arrive with some (on a cosmological scale) regularity. Her explanation has to do with dark matter. It makes for an interesting tale, and offers an excellent example of how the scientific method (how Daniel Day Louis might play Louis Pasteur?) approaches problem-solving. It is a fascinating read that is at times wondrously accessible and at others like trying to bat away a swarm of meteoroids.
Dark Matter
As with most good communicators of science. Randall relies on metaphor, and some of hers are quite good. My favorite compared methods of detecting dark matter to detecting the presence of [insert name of your favorite A-list celebrity here]. You can tell that there is something going on, without actually having to see the celebrity, because you can see swarms, gaggles, pods and packs of paparazzi clumping around the object of their lenses as he/she/it walks/primps/flees down the street. Dark matter affects the things around it too, and it is by measuring those effects that we can tell it is there, even though it remains...you know...dark.
Lisa Randall - from her Twitter pages
She addresses some cosmological questions and offers up the answers that the best current theories provide. One example is that the rotational velocity of stars should be sufficient to make them literally spin out of their galaxies, and yet they don’t. Something must be keeping them in place. Care to guess? There are more like this. They vary in Wow-Cool! levels. Randall takes us from a look at how we know dark matter is out there, and its characteristics, to an overview of our solar system. This is more interesting than a science class slide show of the 8 (or 9 if you are my age) planets circling around our sun. (Well, maybe I should say your sun, but I don’t really want to get into that) There is a lot of other material cruising around out there, and it is significant, as in Please, oh please, do not come crashing into our planet, pretty please.
Path of the New Horizons spacecraft into the Kuiper Belt - from NASA
The Kuiper Belt, a group of clumped asteroids, not an award for the baddest Kuiper, and the Oort Cloud (not where Obchestvo Remeslenogo Truda keeps its data) for example, are parts of our solar system, and move through inter-stellar space along with the sun and planets.
The Oort Cloud – From NASA
You might think of the sundry members of the Solar System as a family all stuffed into one very, very large car of the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island. Once everyone is in, the whole crew moves through space (or circle in this instance) as one. But what if there were another Wonder Wheel, one that was made, not of the dense ordinary matter, but of the much thinner dark sort. Let’s say that it is not vertical but does its spinning thing at an angle. And let’s say it intersected our Wonder Wheel at one point. And every so often, say every thirty some odd million years, the car our solar system is in intersects the material in that other Wonder Wheel. The result could be unpleasant. The big stuff would probably be ok, our sun, the planets, but some of the smaller bits, say rocks in the Oort cloud and Kuiper Belt, might get knocked out of their usual paths. And voila! Fireworks! Big incomings headed our way yet again.
Well, that’s the scoop. I am not giving anything away by laying it out. The value of the book lies in showing how theories are examined, tested and accepted or discarded, the scientific method in action.
But I would not want to make you think the orbit you take while reading Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs is all clear sailing. There are incomings you have to contend with. It always takes a bit more effort to absorb material when much of it is new to the reader, particularly when there are many new words, acronyms and concepts being thrown at you. I confess that there were points in reading this book when my eyes glazed over. It felt like I was reading a list in a foreign language. My mind went a bit dark in the chapter on how galaxies are born and in a couple of particle physics chapters near the end. On the other hand, enough of the early discussion of dark matter was utterly fascinating. When Randall writes of a second, post-Big-Bang expansion of the universe, it was news to me. I quite enjoyed the tour through our solar system, one that included parts we do not usually think of. And if you ever wondered about how three words are used, the answer is here. Meteors are what we see streaking across the sky. We call them meteoroids if they make it to the ground. (I hereby promise that no meteor will touch the Earth on my watch) In fact any alien object hitting Earth is a meteoroid. (Even Asgardians?) Meteorites are the detritus of meteoroid impact. There is a nifty piece on how we define what is and is not a planet, and some amazing intel on what unexpected materials asteroids and comets might have brought to the Earth over the history of our planet, and another piece on how craters are created. And did you know that there is a multi-national (as in countries not corporations) organization that was set up to watch the skies for the next big thing? These and more such nuggets make the journey with Randall worth the occasional eye-glaze.
And if you are worried about The Big One wiping us out, don’t. We will see to that ourselves long before a big rock does the job for us. The current rate of species extinction is comparable to the one that took place 250 million years ago, the Permian-Triassic extinction. In that one 90% of species were wiped out, including insects. There is always hope that we will, over a period of millions of years, figure out how to keep large floaters from making a mess of our earthly garden. With Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs Lisa Randall, by striving to gain greater understanding of how the universe works, is doing her bit to shine a light in the darkness.
Review posted – 10/30/15
Publication date – 10/27/15
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s Twitter and FB pages
NASA’s Site about the Kuiper Belt
In 2010, the National Academy of Sciences presented their results on asteroids and the threats they pose in a document entitled Defending Planet Earth: Near-Earth Object Surveys and Hazard Mitigation Strategies
A nice article in the June 2013 Smithsonian – Lisa Randall’s Guide to the Galaxy
An interesting set of videos with Randall on BIG thoughts
Although the interview is for a different book, Randall’s Daily Show interview with Jon Stewart is fun and informative re things scientific.
Ditto, as Randall is interviewed by Tavis Smiley
A nifty set of videos on the hazards presented by asteroids
The Dark Song from The Lego Movie - It’s Awesome
February 16, 2016
Our Souls are Dark
It is an increasingly accepted speculation that souls might in fact be made of dark matter. According to our latest models, they (dark souls) condense first and allow life to settle down around them. Of course, they can't be detected since they are not detectable by ordinary matter science.
On death, the souls depart from the body, and can go to heaven/cause rebirth via re-agglomeration depending on religious practices of the ordinary matter person associated with the soul. It is not yet fully understood how religious practices affect the dark matter core of a person. However, we do know that the souls get affected by a lifetime of sins, penance, charity, etc.
It is accepted by now that no life can form without a dark soul though some scientists still like the older idea that a soul is required only for higher life forms, probably only humans. Lower life forms can agglomerate without the gravitational-religious pull exerted by the soul-core. The source of this mysterious force that is akin to gravity but applies only to life-forms is yet to be discovered. It is exciting to consider that life might be the only source of interaction between dark and ordinary matter, outside the even more mysterious realm of gravity.
This allows us to speculate that ghosts might be real. In certain religions, certain required practices being not performed would mean that the soul-core is not fully freed from its person-form. This makes it unstable and dangerous, in a limbo state between dark and ordinary matter, and causes it to react in unpredictable ways with ordinary matter - sometimes violating the laws of ordinary matter physics. It is not entirely clear how this comes about.
Dark matter souls normally interact with entirely new forces and particles that do not interact with ordinary matter. But it has been observed over time that religion can have an effect on this. It is a matter of great speculation how nature of reality is altered by the gravitational-religious forces that seem to transcend the dark-ordinary boundary and allow some diffuse interactions. A new temple is proposed to be built near CERN to test the interactions and to identify the carriers of these interactions. We anxiously await the results. We are also hoping to bump into a few celebrity souls/ghosts over there. It is a whole new world that awaits us!
It is an increasingly accepted speculation that souls might in fact be made of dark matter. According to our latest models, they (dark souls) condense first and allow life to settle down around them. Of course, they can't be detected since they are not detectable by ordinary matter science.
On death, the souls depart from the body, and can go to heaven/cause rebirth via re-agglomeration depending on religious practices of the ordinary matter person associated with the soul. It is not yet fully understood how religious practices affect the dark matter core of a person. However, we do know that the souls get affected by a lifetime of sins, penance, charity, etc.
It is accepted by now that no life can form without a dark soul though some scientists still like the older idea that a soul is required only for higher life forms, probably only humans. Lower life forms can agglomerate without the gravitational-religious pull exerted by the soul-core. The source of this mysterious force that is akin to gravity but applies only to life-forms is yet to be discovered. It is exciting to consider that life might be the only source of interaction between dark and ordinary matter, outside the even more mysterious realm of gravity.
This allows us to speculate that ghosts might be real. In certain religions, certain required practices being not performed would mean that the soul-core is not fully freed from its person-form. This makes it unstable and dangerous, in a limbo state between dark and ordinary matter, and causes it to react in unpredictable ways with ordinary matter - sometimes violating the laws of ordinary matter physics. It is not entirely clear how this comes about.
Dark matter souls normally interact with entirely new forces and particles that do not interact with ordinary matter. But it has been observed over time that religion can have an effect on this. It is a matter of great speculation how nature of reality is altered by the gravitational-religious forces that seem to transcend the dark-ordinary boundary and allow some diffuse interactions. A new temple is proposed to be built near CERN to test the interactions and to identify the carriers of these interactions. We anxiously await the results. We are also hoping to bump into a few celebrity souls/ghosts over there. It is a whole new world that awaits us!
July 10, 2016
I really enjoy science books that are well-written, by a scientist who has personally contributed to the field. This book certainly fits into this category, as Lisa Randall is a good writer. This book relates some of the research that she and her collaborators have been doing. Much of the book sets the stage so that lay readers can understand her speculative new hypothesis, and put it into perspective.
Randall’s hypothesis is that dark matter is not exclusively arranged in a big halo around the Milky Way galaxy. There is a distinct concentration of dark matter in the central plane of our galaxy. As our solar system periodically oscillates up and down with respect to the central plane, it is especially perturbed by the concentration of dark matter. The period of this oscillation is about 32 million years. Comets in the outer reaches of our solar system are perturbed in their orbits. They are so far from the sun that a small gravitational perturbation can kick a comet into an orbit that intersects the inner solar system, in the vicinity of the Earth. One such comet collided with the Earth about 66 million years ago, creating a crater in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The comet was 10 or 20 kilometers in diameter, and was responsible for the extinction of most of the living species on Earth, including the dinosaurs.
Now, this hypothesis might be totally wrong. But, Randall explains how she tested it, and how a future spacecraft mission (GAIA) will provide additional experimental tests. In fact, the GAIA spacecraft mission will measure the positions and velocities of billions of stars in our galaxy. It is very fortuitous that the spacecraft was being launched at just the right time, and with exactly the purpose that will test Randall’s hypothesis. She notes how very lucky she is in this regard.
The book reads a bit like a detective story. Lisa Randall takes the reader step by step through the process she and her collaborators took, to formulate and test their hypothesis. This is science writing at its best, because science is not a bunch of facts. Science is a process. And this book shows exactly how the process can work. Most notably, Randall shows how serendipity can often play a role in science. Fortunate coincidences can come together at opportune moments, guiding the research to productive results.
Some reviewers find this book to be somewhat dry. I disagree; it is written in a straightforward style, with none of the cutesy stuff that some science journalists stick in to dumb down their books and .to bring in mass readership. That’s not to say that the book is devoid of humor. I got a big kick out of the photograph in Figure 35. I won’t spoil your fun by giving it away—you will have to read the book to see it!
My only complaint about the book, is that its organization seems to be a bit strange at times. The full synopsis of the hypothesis does not appear until the very end of the book. I guess, that is how it was intended, sort of the denouement of a detective story. And, I was almost ready to write a scathing review, because a clear explanation of the hypothesis seemed to be missing from the book. But in the end, the full story is told, and it all makes sense. Also, I must remark that this book covers a broad range of fields; particle physics, astronomy, cosmology, and paleontology. I heartily recommend this book to everyone who is interested in learning about how modern science is really done these days.
Randall’s hypothesis is that dark matter is not exclusively arranged in a big halo around the Milky Way galaxy. There is a distinct concentration of dark matter in the central plane of our galaxy. As our solar system periodically oscillates up and down with respect to the central plane, it is especially perturbed by the concentration of dark matter. The period of this oscillation is about 32 million years. Comets in the outer reaches of our solar system are perturbed in their orbits. They are so far from the sun that a small gravitational perturbation can kick a comet into an orbit that intersects the inner solar system, in the vicinity of the Earth. One such comet collided with the Earth about 66 million years ago, creating a crater in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The comet was 10 or 20 kilometers in diameter, and was responsible for the extinction of most of the living species on Earth, including the dinosaurs.
Now, this hypothesis might be totally wrong. But, Randall explains how she tested it, and how a future spacecraft mission (GAIA) will provide additional experimental tests. In fact, the GAIA spacecraft mission will measure the positions and velocities of billions of stars in our galaxy. It is very fortuitous that the spacecraft was being launched at just the right time, and with exactly the purpose that will test Randall’s hypothesis. She notes how very lucky she is in this regard.
The book reads a bit like a detective story. Lisa Randall takes the reader step by step through the process she and her collaborators took, to formulate and test their hypothesis. This is science writing at its best, because science is not a bunch of facts. Science is a process. And this book shows exactly how the process can work. Most notably, Randall shows how serendipity can often play a role in science. Fortunate coincidences can come together at opportune moments, guiding the research to productive results.
Some reviewers find this book to be somewhat dry. I disagree; it is written in a straightforward style, with none of the cutesy stuff that some science journalists stick in to dumb down their books and .to bring in mass readership. That’s not to say that the book is devoid of humor. I got a big kick out of the photograph in Figure 35. I won’t spoil your fun by giving it away—you will have to read the book to see it!
My only complaint about the book, is that its organization seems to be a bit strange at times. The full synopsis of the hypothesis does not appear until the very end of the book. I guess, that is how it was intended, sort of the denouement of a detective story. And, I was almost ready to write a scathing review, because a clear explanation of the hypothesis seemed to be missing from the book. But in the end, the full story is told, and it all makes sense. Also, I must remark that this book covers a broad range of fields; particle physics, astronomy, cosmology, and paleontology. I heartily recommend this book to everyone who is interested in learning about how modern science is really done these days.
September 6, 2018
“What is the speed of dark?”
- Lisa Randall, Dark Matter
Lisa Randall is smart. But she is also able to take topics that most people know very little about (dark matter, dark energy, etc) and translate the hard science into books for the unwashed masses. She's good. I believe part of what makes Randall one of a handful of our country's great public intellectuals is her ability to translate and to transfer her specialized knoweldge into books that are largely accesssable to the layman. Also, she is curious. Part of what makes her a phenominal scientist and not just a very good one, is her curiosity beyond her specialized career. She is a theoretical physicist, a cosmologists, a model builder who works well with other theoretical particle physicists and cosmologists. But she doesn't stop there. She is curious about biology, evolution, geology, politics, art, literature, etc. She is a connector. She jumps into fields and links things that might have been easily missed. She sees a periodicity in large meteor hits, makes an argument that links those asteroids to dark matter and builds a model to explain it. She isn't easily kept inside a box.
Last year I was able to spend a couple days with her when my sister hosted her and some friends in Idaho for the totality. It was amazing to watch some basic standard physics (moon blocking the sun) with one of the most cited living physicists. I was literally in the dark with a dark matter expert.
At first with the book, I wasn't sure where she was going. She obviously needed to lay some basic groundwork about how the univeres was structured, what dark matter was, etc., but then she jumped into a discussion of meteors and comets, mass extinctions, and then we were back to discussing dark matter. But she pulled it off. She carefully laid the table to explain the contributions she made concerning dark matter. One of the things I loved about her writing was she was constantly reinforcing the importance of science, EVEN WHEN IT IS SHOWN LATER TO BE WRONG. Randall loves the idea of science more than even her own ideas. It is easy to adore someone who humbles themselves to the possibility of their theory being wrong, and uses that to further embrace the scientific method. I guess I'll let Lisa have the last work to summarize this book:
"This book is about the seemingly abstract stuff such as dark matter that I study, but it is also about the Earth’s relationships to its cosmic surroundings."
- Lisa Randall, Dark Matter
Lisa Randall is smart. But she is also able to take topics that most people know very little about (dark matter, dark energy, etc) and translate the hard science into books for the unwashed masses. She's good. I believe part of what makes Randall one of a handful of our country's great public intellectuals is her ability to translate and to transfer her specialized knoweldge into books that are largely accesssable to the layman. Also, she is curious. Part of what makes her a phenominal scientist and not just a very good one, is her curiosity beyond her specialized career. She is a theoretical physicist, a cosmologists, a model builder who works well with other theoretical particle physicists and cosmologists. But she doesn't stop there. She is curious about biology, evolution, geology, politics, art, literature, etc. She is a connector. She jumps into fields and links things that might have been easily missed. She sees a periodicity in large meteor hits, makes an argument that links those asteroids to dark matter and builds a model to explain it. She isn't easily kept inside a box.
Last year I was able to spend a couple days with her when my sister hosted her and some friends in Idaho for the totality. It was amazing to watch some basic standard physics (moon blocking the sun) with one of the most cited living physicists. I was literally in the dark with a dark matter expert.
At first with the book, I wasn't sure where she was going. She obviously needed to lay some basic groundwork about how the univeres was structured, what dark matter was, etc., but then she jumped into a discussion of meteors and comets, mass extinctions, and then we were back to discussing dark matter. But she pulled it off. She carefully laid the table to explain the contributions she made concerning dark matter. One of the things I loved about her writing was she was constantly reinforcing the importance of science, EVEN WHEN IT IS SHOWN LATER TO BE WRONG. Randall loves the idea of science more than even her own ideas. It is easy to adore someone who humbles themselves to the possibility of their theory being wrong, and uses that to further embrace the scientific method. I guess I'll let Lisa have the last work to summarize this book:
"This book is about the seemingly abstract stuff such as dark matter that I study, but it is also about the Earth’s relationships to its cosmic surroundings."
October 23, 2018
I quite enjoy reading cutting-edge physics books, particularly about the latest premises of quantum theory and cosmology. So I thought this was right up my alley. Turns out it wasn't my alley, it was a dead end. I did not enjoy Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: the Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe.
I’m not a physicist but as long as you leave the maths out, I can follow most complex arguments. I got lost in the first half of DMATDTAIOTU. The first half of the book is primarily about why dark matter must (theoretically speaking) exist. I found that Randall makes way too many assumptions here to really understand her argument. She tosses off too many technical terms casually and proofs too convoluted for a layperson.
At some point, Randall reveals that no one has yet observed dark matter nor do physicists KNOW WHAT IT IS. Most think it LIKELY to exist based on various observations of the behavior of the universe related to gravity and the spread of matter in the universe. Apparently, five-sixths of the universe is invisible, you see. The universe acts as if there is matter there, but it is utterly invisible to light. What could this be? Or, is it possible, scientists just don’t truly understand gravity yet to explain this effect? Here’s an article that explains all this much better, more clearly, and more concisely than Lisa Randall does: https://gizmodo.com/what-is-dark-matt...
The second half of the book is around understanding the frequencies and trajectories of asteroids, meteoroids and comets. This eventually leads to the hypothesis, which is the central subject of the book. That if dark matter actually exists, it may perhaps form a particular disk like shape in the galaxy which when our solar system passes through it could trigger comets to break away from the distant Oort cloud far outside our solar system and dive toward or away from the sun and one of them hit the earth and killed the dinosaurs and most of the other life on the planet. This theory, by the way, is not only dependent upon the existence of dark matter and its hypothetical structure, but it’s also dependent on another very hypothetical assumption, that of the periodicity of comets breaking off from the Oort Cloud.
The theory that the dinosaurs were killed off by a comet strike is fairly well-settled science, although still having many unknowns. But you can read about the Chicxulub crater here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxul..., which has all the hallmarks of a major comet strike 65 million or so years ago, which coincides with the dinosaur's extinction.
That said, Randall’s concept relies on a theory on top of a hypothesis on top of a theory on top of a hypothesis. Yes, there is science behind the premise of dark matter. But very little known beyond that right now. The entire book seems far to premature to have been published conceptually but seems to have made it to press due to the sexiness of the premise…dark matter killed the dinosaurs.
Even if her theory has merit, DMATDTAIOTU is just downright boring. Not recommended.
I’m not a physicist but as long as you leave the maths out, I can follow most complex arguments. I got lost in the first half of DMATDTAIOTU. The first half of the book is primarily about why dark matter must (theoretically speaking) exist. I found that Randall makes way too many assumptions here to really understand her argument. She tosses off too many technical terms casually and proofs too convoluted for a layperson.
At some point, Randall reveals that no one has yet observed dark matter nor do physicists KNOW WHAT IT IS. Most think it LIKELY to exist based on various observations of the behavior of the universe related to gravity and the spread of matter in the universe. Apparently, five-sixths of the universe is invisible, you see. The universe acts as if there is matter there, but it is utterly invisible to light. What could this be? Or, is it possible, scientists just don’t truly understand gravity yet to explain this effect? Here’s an article that explains all this much better, more clearly, and more concisely than Lisa Randall does: https://gizmodo.com/what-is-dark-matt...
The second half of the book is around understanding the frequencies and trajectories of asteroids, meteoroids and comets. This eventually leads to the hypothesis, which is the central subject of the book. That if dark matter actually exists, it may perhaps form a particular disk like shape in the galaxy which when our solar system passes through it could trigger comets to break away from the distant Oort cloud far outside our solar system and dive toward or away from the sun and one of them hit the earth and killed the dinosaurs and most of the other life on the planet. This theory, by the way, is not only dependent upon the existence of dark matter and its hypothetical structure, but it’s also dependent on another very hypothetical assumption, that of the periodicity of comets breaking off from the Oort Cloud.
The theory that the dinosaurs were killed off by a comet strike is fairly well-settled science, although still having many unknowns. But you can read about the Chicxulub crater here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxul..., which has all the hallmarks of a major comet strike 65 million or so years ago, which coincides with the dinosaur's extinction.
That said, Randall’s concept relies on a theory on top of a hypothesis on top of a theory on top of a hypothesis. Yes, there is science behind the premise of dark matter. But very little known beyond that right now. The entire book seems far to premature to have been published conceptually but seems to have made it to press due to the sexiness of the premise…dark matter killed the dinosaurs.
Even if her theory has merit, DMATDTAIOTU is just downright boring. Not recommended.
February 1, 2016
Adapted from the Literary Review:
This book comes garlanded with tributes, headed by the claim “Only Lisa Randall can take us on such a thrilling scientific journey.” I beg to differ. Off the top of my head, I can think of half a dozen science writers who could do a better job of describing this particular scientific story (and some of them have covered almost all of the material presented here). The clue is in the words “science writers”. Randall fits into as particular niche which has recently become over-full. She is a world-renowned scientist, in her case based at Harvard University, and wrote a splendid book about her own area of expertise, Warped Passages. So far, so good. But since then, like others in a similar situation, she has strayed, or been encouraged to stray, authorially, into territory outside her own specialist area, territory that is already better covered by writers who understand science but, at least as importantly, are gifted communicators. George Musser, in her homeland, and Brian Clegg, on this side of the pond, are two that spring to mind.
If it were not for her academic status, Randall’s latest book would pass by as just another rather humdrum account of the origin and evolution of the Universe (and probably I would not be reviewing it). Its only claim to be special is a rather desperate one – the tenuous titular link between dark matter and the fate of the dinosaurs, which is no more than a highly speculative variation on an idea that has been around for decades.
That idea is that as the Solar System bobs up and down on its route around the Galaxy, and repeatedly crosses the disc of the Milky Way like the needle of a sewing machine bobbing up and down through a piece of cloth, gravitational forces shake loose comets from the region known as the Oort Cloud, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Some of these comets fall inward towards the Sun, where they may collide with the Earth, with devastating consequences. The idea is based on some rather dodgy statistics linking alleged periodicities in so–called mass extinctions of life on Earth (including the death of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago) with the periodicities associated with the bobbing movement of the Sun in its orbit around the Milky Way. The statistics are made no less dodgy by Randall’s wild suggestion (even Randall herself calls it “a speculative scenario”) that a layer of dark matter within the galactic disc, like the meat in a hamburger, is what provides the gravitational tug that shakes the comets loose.
This does, of course, provide an ideal opportunity to discuss the nature of dark matter, and its role in the evolution of the Universe. But any scientifically aware person must by now be familiar with the idea that the kind of stuff we are made of (in essence, atoms) makes up only a small proportion of the matter in the Universe, so that stars and galaxies are embedded in a sea of invisible dark matter, which interacts with our kind of stuff only through gravity. Anyone who has an interest in cosmology also knows about dark energy, and the discoveries about the cosmic background radiation recently made by satellites such as NASA’s WMAP and ESA’s Planck. Randall covers all this, and a discussion of the Solar System and our place in it, in workmanlike fashion. But workmanlike really isn’t good enough, when the stories have been covered so often, and so well, already. I quite like the personal vignettes, such as Randall’s description of meteor watching in the Rocky Mountains. But these ought to be the icing on the cake, not the highlights, of a book like this. Even the discussion of dark matter is over-familiar, except for the minor (and unconvincing) twist in the tail.
A bit less than the last quarter of the book actually addresses the topic of the title (I’m being generous; arguably less than half that) and a large chunk of this is taken up with telling us, with commendable honesty, about all the uncertainties in the claim. Dinosaurs sell books (as do cats), and I don’t blame Randall for trying to sex up her subject. But all the new and interesting (though probably wrong) stuff here could have comfortably been encapsulated in an article for Scientific American. Who might benefit from the book? A complete newcomer, maybe the proverbial teenager who as yet knows nothing about the Universe and the place of the Earth in space. Who will be disappointed by it? Anyone interested in dinosaurs. And what should the book have been called? The Speed of Dark, as any Terry Pratchett fan could tell you.
It would not be fair to say that I am disappointed by the book, because I had low expectations. But it is fair to say that those expectations have been fulfilled. The real disappointment is that if she had not been busy writing this very average account of the Universe, Randall could have been concentrating on her research, which really is thrilling. There is an expression about cobblers and lasts which is apposite.
This book comes garlanded with tributes, headed by the claim “Only Lisa Randall can take us on such a thrilling scientific journey.” I beg to differ. Off the top of my head, I can think of half a dozen science writers who could do a better job of describing this particular scientific story (and some of them have covered almost all of the material presented here). The clue is in the words “science writers”. Randall fits into as particular niche which has recently become over-full. She is a world-renowned scientist, in her case based at Harvard University, and wrote a splendid book about her own area of expertise, Warped Passages. So far, so good. But since then, like others in a similar situation, she has strayed, or been encouraged to stray, authorially, into territory outside her own specialist area, territory that is already better covered by writers who understand science but, at least as importantly, are gifted communicators. George Musser, in her homeland, and Brian Clegg, on this side of the pond, are two that spring to mind.
If it were not for her academic status, Randall’s latest book would pass by as just another rather humdrum account of the origin and evolution of the Universe (and probably I would not be reviewing it). Its only claim to be special is a rather desperate one – the tenuous titular link between dark matter and the fate of the dinosaurs, which is no more than a highly speculative variation on an idea that has been around for decades.
That idea is that as the Solar System bobs up and down on its route around the Galaxy, and repeatedly crosses the disc of the Milky Way like the needle of a sewing machine bobbing up and down through a piece of cloth, gravitational forces shake loose comets from the region known as the Oort Cloud, far beyond the orbit of Pluto. Some of these comets fall inward towards the Sun, where they may collide with the Earth, with devastating consequences. The idea is based on some rather dodgy statistics linking alleged periodicities in so–called mass extinctions of life on Earth (including the death of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago) with the periodicities associated with the bobbing movement of the Sun in its orbit around the Milky Way. The statistics are made no less dodgy by Randall’s wild suggestion (even Randall herself calls it “a speculative scenario”) that a layer of dark matter within the galactic disc, like the meat in a hamburger, is what provides the gravitational tug that shakes the comets loose.
This does, of course, provide an ideal opportunity to discuss the nature of dark matter, and its role in the evolution of the Universe. But any scientifically aware person must by now be familiar with the idea that the kind of stuff we are made of (in essence, atoms) makes up only a small proportion of the matter in the Universe, so that stars and galaxies are embedded in a sea of invisible dark matter, which interacts with our kind of stuff only through gravity. Anyone who has an interest in cosmology also knows about dark energy, and the discoveries about the cosmic background radiation recently made by satellites such as NASA’s WMAP and ESA’s Planck. Randall covers all this, and a discussion of the Solar System and our place in it, in workmanlike fashion. But workmanlike really isn’t good enough, when the stories have been covered so often, and so well, already. I quite like the personal vignettes, such as Randall’s description of meteor watching in the Rocky Mountains. But these ought to be the icing on the cake, not the highlights, of a book like this. Even the discussion of dark matter is over-familiar, except for the minor (and unconvincing) twist in the tail.
A bit less than the last quarter of the book actually addresses the topic of the title (I’m being generous; arguably less than half that) and a large chunk of this is taken up with telling us, with commendable honesty, about all the uncertainties in the claim. Dinosaurs sell books (as do cats), and I don’t blame Randall for trying to sex up her subject. But all the new and interesting (though probably wrong) stuff here could have comfortably been encapsulated in an article for Scientific American. Who might benefit from the book? A complete newcomer, maybe the proverbial teenager who as yet knows nothing about the Universe and the place of the Earth in space. Who will be disappointed by it? Anyone interested in dinosaurs. And what should the book have been called? The Speed of Dark, as any Terry Pratchett fan could tell you.
It would not be fair to say that I am disappointed by the book, because I had low expectations. But it is fair to say that those expectations have been fulfilled. The real disappointment is that if she had not been busy writing this very average account of the Universe, Randall could have been concentrating on her research, which really is thrilling. There is an expression about cobblers and lasts which is apposite.
November 7, 2015
I have read previous books by Lisa Randall, and liked them well enough, but her new book is in some sense unique, and extraordinary. In order to show us how she has come to think that there’s a connection between galactic dark matter and Earth’s periodic extinctions (a somewhat long-shot hypothesis) she takes us in an amazing tour of our Solar System and the universe, like no other science-for-the-layperson book has ever undertaken. It’s both a look at how a scientist deeply thinks about ideas and a master class in science.
For most of the book, Randall has transformed herself from a physicist to an astronomer and geologist and evolutionary biologist, and effortlessly teaches all of us about the wonders of the universe. Even for a jaded College professor and regular reader of this lore (I have taught College Physics, Biochemistry, Cellular Biology and Human Physiology and Anatomy for most of my life) there are here lots of discoveries—and a pervasive, subtle humor—that enlivens what could have turned into a dry discussion of geological eras, meteorites and the like, and the biological underpinnings of evolution. There’s even a bit of fun about “Jurassic [sic] Park” and “The Big Bang Theory”.
This book has been an enjoyable surprise to me—hadn’t liked that much “Knocking on Heavens’s Door”—and it places Randall right up there in Carl Sagan’s territory. A terrific Good Read.
For most of the book, Randall has transformed herself from a physicist to an astronomer and geologist and evolutionary biologist, and effortlessly teaches all of us about the wonders of the universe. Even for a jaded College professor and regular reader of this lore (I have taught College Physics, Biochemistry, Cellular Biology and Human Physiology and Anatomy for most of my life) there are here lots of discoveries—and a pervasive, subtle humor—that enlivens what could have turned into a dry discussion of geological eras, meteorites and the like, and the biological underpinnings of evolution. There’s even a bit of fun about “Jurassic [sic] Park” and “The Big Bang Theory”.
This book has been an enjoyable surprise to me—hadn’t liked that much “Knocking on Heavens’s Door”—and it places Randall right up there in Carl Sagan’s territory. A terrific Good Read.
February 18, 2018
Randall offers an exotic hypothesis to explain the demise of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. She argues that the solar system passing through a disk of dark matter in the galactic plane perturbed Oort cloud objects resulting in a large comet crashing into earth. She admits the theory is highly speculative and says her real purpose is to share the underlying science. To make her case she ties together diverse scientific disciplines including cosmology, particle physics, astronomy, geology and paleontology.
Randall starts by taking us through the formation of the universe with an emphasis on the role of dark matter. Dark matter interacts with ordinary matter and itself solely through gravity as far as we know. There is five times as much of it as ordinary matter and it is critical to the structure and arrangement of galaxies. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a disk 130,000 light years wide and 2,000 light years thick. It resides in a spherical halo of dark matter that extends 650,000 light years across. The sun lies 27,000 light years from the center and circles the galaxy every 240 million years.
Next Randall digs into the Solar System’s structure describing the categories, compositions, distributions and behaviors of planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids, dust and especially comets. Short period comets (less than 200 years) may be guided by the Kuiper Belt but originate in the Scattered Disk. The Kuiper Belt is the region beyond Neptune. Neptune is 30 AU from the sun. AU stands for Astronomical Unit, the distance from the center of the earth to the center of the sun. The Kuiper Belt is a doughnut shaped area containing dwarf planets (including Pluto) and smaller icy bodies extending out to 55 AU. Past that, out to 100 AU, lies the much more sparsely populated Scattered Disk which also has minor planets and icy bodies. These frozen gas bodies can become comets when perturbed from unstable elliptical orbits. Long period comets (more than 200 years) originate in the Oort cloud, which extends from 1,000 to 50,000 AU from the sun, almost a light year. The Oort cloud is too far away to observe so it is considered hypothetical. The Oort cloud extends to the end of the Sun’s gravitational ability to hold objects. Such lightly bound objects are easily dislodged from their orbits.
Meteoroids and dust regularly enter earth’s atmosphere. Larger asteroids and comets are less frequent but far more significant. The largest recorded event in 1908 in Russia was from a 50 meter wide object that exploded with the equivalent of 10 to 15 megatons of TNT or about 1,000 times of the Hiroshima bomb destroying 2,000 square kilometers of forest. Randall identifies 26 impact craters formed in the last 250 million years that exceed 20 kilometers wide indicating events resulting in global damage. Since the earth is 70% ocean and erosion and other factors hide craters, many more have occurred. Randall explains the methods geologists use to determine that a crater has an extraterrestrial cause.
Randall describes the ways paleontologists reconstruct the past to determine that a mass extinction has taken place. There have been five big ones since the rapid rise of complex multicellular life 540 million years ago. The biggest was 250 million year ago, the Permian-Triassic event which killed off 90% of species. Fifty million years later another event enabled the dinosaurs to take charge and then 66 million years ago another event eliminated them and paved the way for us mammals. Today we are on the brink of a human caused sixth extinction.
The Cretaceous-Paleogene event of 66 million years ago that killed off the dinosaurs was caused by a comet. Randall explores the years of detective work by geologists that went into proposing and then confirming this. The impactor hit at the edge of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico leaving a crater 150 kilometers in diameter. This 10-15 kilometer wide object traveling at 20 kilometers per second released an energy equivalent of 100 trillion tons of TNT, a billion times more than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Tidal waves and seismic waves rippled around the globe. Poisonous fumes filled the atmosphere. Fires broke out everywhere followed by a global winter from an atmosphere filled with debris blocking the sun’s rays. Birds, burrowing mammals and some other fortunate species would hang on to survive. Randall examines the proposals that these impact events occur more frequently at regular intervals and settles on a period of 32 million years.
To support her theory Randall explores current ideas for dark matter. The most common is WIMP, Weakly Interactive Massive Particle. The LHC (Large Hadron Collider), which successfully found the comparably massive Higgs boson, has been unable to find these proposed additions to the Standard Model. Another is Asymmetric Dark Matter which like WIMPs allows for a small yet to be detected interaction with ordinary matter. Another candidate particle is the axion which has already been suggested to solve other problems with the Standard Model, but none have been detected. Other ideas such as neutrinos or simply unseen ordinary matter such as mini black holes have been pretty much disproven. Randall highlights the many ongoing experiments that place detectors deep in the earth to block out interference so that the weak interactions of these particles might be recorded.
Randall looks at how well dark matter’s gravitational influence lines up with the universe’s galactic structure. She notes that the distribution of dark matter in dwarf galaxies and galactic centers is less than predicted. She claims her hypothesis that a small percentage of dark matter interacts with itself, mimicking at least partially the behavior of ordinary matter, explains these anomalies. The WIMP theory holds that the dark matter particle is much heavier than a proton. Randall uses this in her model to support her “partially interacting dark matter” forming a disk in the galactic plane that is 100 times thinner than that formed by ordinary matter. This is key to its periodic disruptive gravitational impact on the Solar System’s Oort cloud. Unlike the wider galactic plane of ordinary matter in which the solar system always resides, the solar system moves in and out of the dense dark matter disk as it weaves up and down in its orbit around the galaxy. The gravity of this thin dense disk would be enough to perturb Oort objects sending some towards earth. This movement of the Solar System ties to Randall’s periodicity of 32 million years. The Solar System entered the proposed dense dark matter disk two million years ago, add in two complete cycles, and you are at 66 million years ago.
So what are we to make of this bizarre theory that makes unsupported assumptions about the nature of dark matter; particularly that at least some of it must interact with itself in order to form the proposed disk? Randall is careful to craft her model so that it conforms to known measurements, but this hardly makes it true. It’s a big stretch. We could call it a shot in the dark. But to me the real value of the book is not in the theory, it is what I learned as Randall took me through the science she used to build it. I learned a lot about dark matter, even if I still have no idea what it is. I learned how it influences the structure of ordinary matter. I learned the many theories and experiments underway to uncover its nature. I gained a new appreciation for the entirety of our Solar System. I now visualize the entire Solar System including its far flung halo of Oort objects moving through the galaxy. Before, I just pictured the planets revolving around the sun. And even if dark matter was not the trigger I find it fascinating that our presence on earth has been determined by an object coming from a part of the Solar System that has never been observed.
Randall starts by taking us through the formation of the universe with an emphasis on the role of dark matter. Dark matter interacts with ordinary matter and itself solely through gravity as far as we know. There is five times as much of it as ordinary matter and it is critical to the structure and arrangement of galaxies. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a disk 130,000 light years wide and 2,000 light years thick. It resides in a spherical halo of dark matter that extends 650,000 light years across. The sun lies 27,000 light years from the center and circles the galaxy every 240 million years.
Next Randall digs into the Solar System’s structure describing the categories, compositions, distributions and behaviors of planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, meteoroids, dust and especially comets. Short period comets (less than 200 years) may be guided by the Kuiper Belt but originate in the Scattered Disk. The Kuiper Belt is the region beyond Neptune. Neptune is 30 AU from the sun. AU stands for Astronomical Unit, the distance from the center of the earth to the center of the sun. The Kuiper Belt is a doughnut shaped area containing dwarf planets (including Pluto) and smaller icy bodies extending out to 55 AU. Past that, out to 100 AU, lies the much more sparsely populated Scattered Disk which also has minor planets and icy bodies. These frozen gas bodies can become comets when perturbed from unstable elliptical orbits. Long period comets (more than 200 years) originate in the Oort cloud, which extends from 1,000 to 50,000 AU from the sun, almost a light year. The Oort cloud is too far away to observe so it is considered hypothetical. The Oort cloud extends to the end of the Sun’s gravitational ability to hold objects. Such lightly bound objects are easily dislodged from their orbits.
Meteoroids and dust regularly enter earth’s atmosphere. Larger asteroids and comets are less frequent but far more significant. The largest recorded event in 1908 in Russia was from a 50 meter wide object that exploded with the equivalent of 10 to 15 megatons of TNT or about 1,000 times of the Hiroshima bomb destroying 2,000 square kilometers of forest. Randall identifies 26 impact craters formed in the last 250 million years that exceed 20 kilometers wide indicating events resulting in global damage. Since the earth is 70% ocean and erosion and other factors hide craters, many more have occurred. Randall explains the methods geologists use to determine that a crater has an extraterrestrial cause.
Randall describes the ways paleontologists reconstruct the past to determine that a mass extinction has taken place. There have been five big ones since the rapid rise of complex multicellular life 540 million years ago. The biggest was 250 million year ago, the Permian-Triassic event which killed off 90% of species. Fifty million years later another event enabled the dinosaurs to take charge and then 66 million years ago another event eliminated them and paved the way for us mammals. Today we are on the brink of a human caused sixth extinction.
The Cretaceous-Paleogene event of 66 million years ago that killed off the dinosaurs was caused by a comet. Randall explores the years of detective work by geologists that went into proposing and then confirming this. The impactor hit at the edge of the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico leaving a crater 150 kilometers in diameter. This 10-15 kilometer wide object traveling at 20 kilometers per second released an energy equivalent of 100 trillion tons of TNT, a billion times more than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Tidal waves and seismic waves rippled around the globe. Poisonous fumes filled the atmosphere. Fires broke out everywhere followed by a global winter from an atmosphere filled with debris blocking the sun’s rays. Birds, burrowing mammals and some other fortunate species would hang on to survive. Randall examines the proposals that these impact events occur more frequently at regular intervals and settles on a period of 32 million years.
To support her theory Randall explores current ideas for dark matter. The most common is WIMP, Weakly Interactive Massive Particle. The LHC (Large Hadron Collider), which successfully found the comparably massive Higgs boson, has been unable to find these proposed additions to the Standard Model. Another is Asymmetric Dark Matter which like WIMPs allows for a small yet to be detected interaction with ordinary matter. Another candidate particle is the axion which has already been suggested to solve other problems with the Standard Model, but none have been detected. Other ideas such as neutrinos or simply unseen ordinary matter such as mini black holes have been pretty much disproven. Randall highlights the many ongoing experiments that place detectors deep in the earth to block out interference so that the weak interactions of these particles might be recorded.
Randall looks at how well dark matter’s gravitational influence lines up with the universe’s galactic structure. She notes that the distribution of dark matter in dwarf galaxies and galactic centers is less than predicted. She claims her hypothesis that a small percentage of dark matter interacts with itself, mimicking at least partially the behavior of ordinary matter, explains these anomalies. The WIMP theory holds that the dark matter particle is much heavier than a proton. Randall uses this in her model to support her “partially interacting dark matter” forming a disk in the galactic plane that is 100 times thinner than that formed by ordinary matter. This is key to its periodic disruptive gravitational impact on the Solar System’s Oort cloud. Unlike the wider galactic plane of ordinary matter in which the solar system always resides, the solar system moves in and out of the dense dark matter disk as it weaves up and down in its orbit around the galaxy. The gravity of this thin dense disk would be enough to perturb Oort objects sending some towards earth. This movement of the Solar System ties to Randall’s periodicity of 32 million years. The Solar System entered the proposed dense dark matter disk two million years ago, add in two complete cycles, and you are at 66 million years ago.
So what are we to make of this bizarre theory that makes unsupported assumptions about the nature of dark matter; particularly that at least some of it must interact with itself in order to form the proposed disk? Randall is careful to craft her model so that it conforms to known measurements, but this hardly makes it true. It’s a big stretch. We could call it a shot in the dark. But to me the real value of the book is not in the theory, it is what I learned as Randall took me through the science she used to build it. I learned a lot about dark matter, even if I still have no idea what it is. I learned how it influences the structure of ordinary matter. I learned the many theories and experiments underway to uncover its nature. I gained a new appreciation for the entirety of our Solar System. I now visualize the entire Solar System including its far flung halo of Oort objects moving through the galaxy. Before, I just pictured the planets revolving around the sun. And even if dark matter was not the trigger I find it fascinating that our presence on earth has been determined by an object coming from a part of the Solar System that has never been observed.
July 21, 2016
'Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs' was over my pay grade. I'm afraid I understand only half of the book completely - the rest was an exercise in futility. However, it seems up-to-date and on the cutting edge of theory as much as a non-scientist reader like myself, who reads pop science magazines, can comprehend!
National Academy of Sciences member Lisa Randall's book was published in 2015. 'Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs', one of many books she has written, recognized for their quality in describing the high-end science Randall is exploring, is a thorough physical forces walkabout on the creation of the Earth, the solar system and the Universe as only someone who has studied theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University can do it.
While I did not see any mathematical equations in the book, her explanations are based on deductions from sussing out the science from the mathematics which describes how the universe functions, and the almost understanding of how it all started, and brief descriptions of how particles, atoms and elements interact combine and separate to illustrate the why of scientists' deductions, along with graphs that chart and examine the measurements taken by various high-tech instruments and low-tech satellite cuties scooting around in the Solar System.
Whew! The amount of detail and facts this woman must be able to juggle in her head while drinking coffee must be astronomically huge! Literally!
I suspect the book is a wonderfully enlightening read, but due to the low wattage of my brain cells, I can only say I enjoyed the challenge of reading it. I was able to pick out bits which echo what I've been reading in articles which talk down to readers, but Randall's explanations filled in many blanks for me.
I recommend reading this in-depth book - several times....
Check out this superior review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
: )
National Academy of Sciences member Lisa Randall's book was published in 2015. 'Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs', one of many books she has written, recognized for their quality in describing the high-end science Randall is exploring, is a thorough physical forces walkabout on the creation of the Earth, the solar system and the Universe as only someone who has studied theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University can do it.
While I did not see any mathematical equations in the book, her explanations are based on deductions from sussing out the science from the mathematics which describes how the universe functions, and the almost understanding of how it all started, and brief descriptions of how particles, atoms and elements interact combine and separate to illustrate the why of scientists' deductions, along with graphs that chart and examine the measurements taken by various high-tech instruments and low-tech satellite cuties scooting around in the Solar System.
Whew! The amount of detail and facts this woman must be able to juggle in her head while drinking coffee must be astronomically huge! Literally!
I suspect the book is a wonderfully enlightening read, but due to the low wattage of my brain cells, I can only say I enjoyed the challenge of reading it. I was able to pick out bits which echo what I've been reading in articles which talk down to readers, but Randall's explanations filled in many blanks for me.
I recommend reading this in-depth book - several times....
Check out this superior review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
: )
August 17, 2018
Fascinating, intriguing, thought-provoking yet also confusing and complicated.
Lisa Randall has done a good job of taking a very complex subject and helping folk like me to understand the science, theory and conjecture.
It is, as she says, a theory but one she ably links the connection and influence of dark matter (not dark energy, black holes or anti-matter) to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
There were, it is true, parts of this book I had to re-read and also just recognise I didn't understand, but it is a book doing a good job of simplifying some serious science and maths.
Lisa Randall has done a good job of taking a very complex subject and helping folk like me to understand the science, theory and conjecture.
It is, as she says, a theory but one she ably links the connection and influence of dark matter (not dark energy, black holes or anti-matter) to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
There were, it is true, parts of this book I had to re-read and also just recognise I didn't understand, but it is a book doing a good job of simplifying some serious science and maths.
April 2, 2018
Un título que tiene "materia oscura" y "dinosaurios" es ya de por sí una provocación. Algo que puede salir bien o tremendamente mal, cuando tienes el libro en tus manos sabes que ha generado unas expectativas muy grandes y es muy fácil fallar, un título tan provocador es un gran riesgo. Pero Lisa salió de su propia trampa con solvencia, eficazmente, diría que sin despeinarse. Paso a paso, como quien va haciendo tics en una lista de tareas por hacer. "Hablar de la materia oscura", check. "Hablar de extinciones masivas", check. "Hablar de los dinosaurios", check. "Conectar ambas ideas", supercheck.
Y lo hace todo con un tono muy limpio, muy científico. Se respira ciencia en el libro, por su forma de aclarar conceptos, por su manera señalar las especulaciones de su propia teoría... Este libro es una ruta de carretera, como uno de esos mapas que antes se hacían, que te lleva desde A hasta B, siendo A la materia oscura y B la extinción de los dinosaurios. Y es imposible perderse. Te lo digo yo.
Así que ya tienes un libro más en tu lista de libros recomendados. Ahora solo toca abrirlo y disfrutar.
NOTA: en mi clasificación de rombos le otorgo dos rombos.
Y lo hace todo con un tono muy limpio, muy científico. Se respira ciencia en el libro, por su forma de aclarar conceptos, por su manera señalar las especulaciones de su propia teoría... Este libro es una ruta de carretera, como uno de esos mapas que antes se hacían, que te lleva desde A hasta B, siendo A la materia oscura y B la extinción de los dinosaurios. Y es imposible perderse. Te lo digo yo.
Así que ya tienes un libro más en tu lista de libros recomendados. Ahora solo toca abrirlo y disfrutar.
NOTA: en mi clasificación de rombos le otorgo dos rombos.
March 30, 2016
Randall is the first to warn her reader that her new hypothesis is speculative and in need of more testing. However, she is excited about the kinds of questions this new direction is taking her. Randall has been investigating how dark matter might be involved in not only the creation of matter itself, but possibly in the evolution of humans as well. The presence of dark matter is not at all speculative. It has been detected using a variety of tools and methods. What is speculative is the notion that some dark matter might interact with itself. Just as ordinary matter comes in different varieties (different sizes, charges, etc) dark matter too might come in different varieties, some of which might not make a halo, but rather a dense disc that cuts through the the Milky Way and provides an extra gravitational force that might throw a comet off its trajectory and allow it to plunge toward and into earth, thus changing the temperature and atmosphere of Earth.
Randall has a mixed style of writing. At times she makes analogies that are so fantastic, they seem among the best I have read. At times though, her writing is dry. For example, I found the chapter on Cuvier (who I actually love) and catastrophe to be so dry, I had trouble paying attention. But, her chapters on the structure of the universe-- how matter was formed, how matter collapses into a disc, how clumping follows the rich get richer power laws,how heavy elements actually help in cooling so that large objects like our sun can form, etc-- were actually page turners for me. I reread some of those sections more than once because they were so exciting.
One of my favorite parts of the book was her discussion of Occam's Razor. She prosed a table setting around core function. It was brilliant. Also wonderful, she treated her reader to a version of human's are not special that went way beyond most things associated with the Copernican revolution. She suggested that matter, everything we have ever seen in the universe, is not special. So great to be reminded of that. I actually laughed audibly while reading that section.
I cannot wait to see what the telescope Gaia finds. Of course I am hoping it will support Randall and Reece's hypothesis. If it does not, I am still excited to continue hearing about the questions that continue to drive Randall's work.
Randall has a mixed style of writing. At times she makes analogies that are so fantastic, they seem among the best I have read. At times though, her writing is dry. For example, I found the chapter on Cuvier (who I actually love) and catastrophe to be so dry, I had trouble paying attention. But, her chapters on the structure of the universe-- how matter was formed, how matter collapses into a disc, how clumping follows the rich get richer power laws,how heavy elements actually help in cooling so that large objects like our sun can form, etc-- were actually page turners for me. I reread some of those sections more than once because they were so exciting.
One of my favorite parts of the book was her discussion of Occam's Razor. She prosed a table setting around core function. It was brilliant. Also wonderful, she treated her reader to a version of human's are not special that went way beyond most things associated with the Copernican revolution. She suggested that matter, everything we have ever seen in the universe, is not special. So great to be reminded of that. I actually laughed audibly while reading that section.
I cannot wait to see what the telescope Gaia finds. Of course I am hoping it will support Randall and Reece's hypothesis. If it does not, I am still excited to continue hearing about the questions that continue to drive Randall's work.
October 10, 2019
I am glad I bought this book. I have WAY too many pencil marks as I found interesting details I did not know about our universe. I appreciated the honest candor with which Lisa Randall writes. She talks of wrong paths taken, and of right paths taken that came by pure chance. You can hear the true 'scientist' in her voice - "show me new data and we will adjust our scientific theories".
I need to now go back over all my pencil marks and make a powerpoint presentation for my HS Physics classes that I teach.
I greatly appreciate such readable material on the 68% of the Universe that we cannot see - Dark Matter.
I need to now go back over all my pencil marks and make a powerpoint presentation for my HS Physics classes that I teach.
I greatly appreciate such readable material on the 68% of the Universe that we cannot see - Dark Matter.
May 29, 2016
I picked this up after NPR's "Science Friday" recommended it. I found it diffuse. Which is odd given Randall's core thesis -- that science is exciting when findings from one field cross-fertilize an unrelated field... and positively amazing when that feedback loop can illuminate other features of the original subject.
The problem is, Randall does a ho-hum job connecting her research as a particle physicist and cosmologist studying dark matter to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Instead, the proposed connection seems tacked-on. Randall's overall aim in "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs" is, to her credit, captivating. Central to the book is illustrating how connections work in science using her own work in dark matter. And how exposure to and observation from one field -- paleontology -- suggested to Randall and a colleague a possible solution to the apparent "periodicity" of large meteor strikes like the one in the Yucatan that led to the demise of the dinosaurs.
Cool. Sounds creative and fertile. But it just didn't congeal.
All in all, a noble effort. Since Randall is trying to generate buzz by piggy-backing her core work on particle physics on a super-popular topic, dinosaurs. But she fails to make the connections juicy enough. Worse. Randall's prose is bloated.
Bottom line: Randall is a brilliant physicist. She is trying to popularize a field that is hard to popularize. But she needed an editor -- to make her prose and content tighter.
The problem is, Randall does a ho-hum job connecting her research as a particle physicist and cosmologist studying dark matter to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Instead, the proposed connection seems tacked-on. Randall's overall aim in "Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs" is, to her credit, captivating. Central to the book is illustrating how connections work in science using her own work in dark matter. And how exposure to and observation from one field -- paleontology -- suggested to Randall and a colleague a possible solution to the apparent "periodicity" of large meteor strikes like the one in the Yucatan that led to the demise of the dinosaurs.
Cool. Sounds creative and fertile. But it just didn't congeal.
All in all, a noble effort. Since Randall is trying to generate buzz by piggy-backing her core work on particle physics on a super-popular topic, dinosaurs. But she fails to make the connections juicy enough. Worse. Randall's prose is bloated.
Bottom line: Randall is a brilliant physicist. She is trying to popularize a field that is hard to popularize. But she needed an editor -- to make her prose and content tighter.
February 28, 2016
An absolutely amazing book. Some rollicking good information, with clear explanations about extinction, the structure of the solar system, comets, and galaxies. She's best when she gets to particle physics and dark matter. While the science is fantastic, interesting and well informed (as an evolutionary biologist I noticed a couple of glitches, nothing wrong, just misleading), but the very best part of the book is explaining how science is done. She goes through some of the best writing I've seen on the inception of ideas and how those are turned into hypothesis driven science and then how those are turned into theories and tested. She walks us through this process with such care and insight I was stunned with the clarity of detail that she approached it. I teach a class on the philosophy of biology and I'm going to have the students read these descriptions. An amazing book in every way. I not only wanted to give it five stars, but to shout hooray.
December 3, 2016
Delicioso. O conteúdo é um pouco especulativo no final, quando ela defende o argumento central do livro (sim, o argumento central é especulativo), que a matéria escura poderia matar dinossauros. Mas a explicação toda para chegar nesse ponto é boa, bem descrita e compreensível. É o tipo de atualização de área que a astronomia precisa, com o que vem acontecendo de novo na área, de energia escura à matéria escura. Recomendadíssimo.
November 12, 2018
Let's play an imagination game, yes this is supposed to be a "popular science" book, but let's not worry about it being in the non-fiction universe as of now. You see the game is important! So...
1). Imagine a new kind of matter, which is invisible, omnipresent and makes up everything you do see aka normal, mundane, everyday matter!
2). Now continuing our little game of imagination further on, let's have our entire solar system like other star systems out there be surrounded by a dark matter field.
3). But sadly the majority of dark matter is really too cool and hip to interact with lesser objects like everyday matter, however, 5% of them do so. And that 5% of interacting dark matter form clumps with local matter like badly whipped potato spuds.
Now the climax (Dun, dun, dunnnn!!! ) -
What if those potato spuds like clumps of the local matter then get entrapped in a solar gravitational field and become meteors, which then crash on earth to kill those mean-looking dinosaurs???
Mind blowing stuff isn't it! I had to read Calvin & Hobbes while downing whisky shots, just to steady myself and realise that even a puny Calvin, asks more profound questions than someone with a PhD degree.
The summary of this 350+ page,unimaginative book is - Everything is Interconnected because of dark matter . Sigh!
My Rating - 1/5 (Garbage bin)
PS - Puns aside, please readers find something else from the popular science trolley to read than this atrocity! Better yet, read Calvin & Hobbes
1). Imagine a new kind of matter, which is invisible, omnipresent and makes up everything you do see aka normal, mundane, everyday matter!
2). Now continuing our little game of imagination further on, let's have our entire solar system like other star systems out there be surrounded by a dark matter field.
3). But sadly the majority of dark matter is really too cool and hip to interact with lesser objects like everyday matter, however, 5% of them do so. And that 5% of interacting dark matter form clumps with local matter like badly whipped potato spuds.
Now the climax (Dun, dun, dunnnn!!! ) -
What if those potato spuds like clumps of the local matter then get entrapped in a solar gravitational field and become meteors, which then crash on earth to kill those mean-looking dinosaurs???
Mind blowing stuff isn't it! I had to read Calvin & Hobbes while downing whisky shots, just to steady myself and realise that even a puny Calvin, asks more profound questions than someone with a PhD degree.
The summary of this 350+ page,unimaginative book is - Everything is Interconnected because of dark matter . Sigh!
My Rating - 1/5 (Garbage bin)
PS - Puns aside, please readers find something else from the popular science trolley to read than this atrocity! Better yet, read Calvin & Hobbes
June 10, 2019
*What is the speed of dark?*
So reads Lisa Randall's fortune cookie fortune that her Roomba almost picked up. And the day she decided to write this book, a meteor burned up in Earth's atmosphere. Fortuitous timing?
For humans on the brink of a possible 6th extinction, possibly not.
But also, it's hard to say ... because ... we're still in the dark. About many things, primarily, dark matter.
Dark matter is quite the enigma. Who can say what it is or what it does? Randall does a great job of presenting facts and science. Aside from the two personal tidbits I shared above, this book is largely devoid of character and strictly scientific analysis.
A little dry, and very ... transparent. Straightforward without a lot of flim flam. Sometimes science writers can get too wrapped up in dumbing down their work for the common man, or adding extraneous elements such as humor to their approach (*cough* Mary Roach *cough*), not so Lisa Randall, which I actually appreciated.
"Dark matter is not dark—it is transparent. Dark stuff absorbs light. Transparent things, on the other hand, are oblivious to it. Light can hit dark matter, but neither the matter nor the light will change as a result."
Informative, interesting, but also largely speculative.
It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't exactly a gripping read either. Don't expect much in the way of dinosaurs either, they didn't appear until the very end of the book.
Full review to come???
So reads Lisa Randall's fortune cookie fortune that her Roomba almost picked up. And the day she decided to write this book, a meteor burned up in Earth's atmosphere. Fortuitous timing?
For humans on the brink of a possible 6th extinction, possibly not.
But also, it's hard to say ... because ... we're still in the dark. About many things, primarily, dark matter.
Dark matter is quite the enigma. Who can say what it is or what it does? Randall does a great job of presenting facts and science. Aside from the two personal tidbits I shared above, this book is largely devoid of character and strictly scientific analysis.
A little dry, and very ... transparent. Straightforward without a lot of flim flam. Sometimes science writers can get too wrapped up in dumbing down their work for the common man, or adding extraneous elements such as humor to their approach (*cough* Mary Roach *cough*), not so Lisa Randall, which I actually appreciated.
"Dark matter is not dark—it is transparent. Dark stuff absorbs light. Transparent things, on the other hand, are oblivious to it. Light can hit dark matter, but neither the matter nor the light will change as a result."
Informative, interesting, but also largely speculative.
It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't exactly a gripping read either. Don't expect much in the way of dinosaurs either, they didn't appear until the very end of the book.
Full review to come???
July 19, 2017
Sixty-six million years ago another day dawned over a Cretaceous earth. Life was carrying on as normal, but everything was about to change because heading towards the planet at an astounding speed was a ten-mile wide object. The impact of this object left a crater, traces of which can still be detected and managed to obliterate the dinosaurs and 75% of all the other species on the planet. The few that survived evolved into the huge variety that we have today and provided an opportunity for the mammal to thrive. It is now thought that this was not one of those, one in several million chance events, rather an effect of our solar system interacting with the wider universe and the gravitational influence of dark matter.
Randell has some interesting theories about dark matter, the pervasiveness of it in the universe and how the gravitational influence of dark matter causes disturbances in our galaxy and solar system. It is a substance that we know is there, but at present, we have no idea where it is, what it is or how to detect it. Quite elusive stuff, especially given how much of it there is out there. Randell writes with clarity on a difficult subject, although it is occasionally incomprehensible; but that is as much because I am fairly rusty at physics, rather than her explanations. She is well qualified to talk about this being Professor of theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard, but this is one book that might be beyond the general science reader, even though they should probably give it a go.
Randell has some interesting theories about dark matter, the pervasiveness of it in the universe and how the gravitational influence of dark matter causes disturbances in our galaxy and solar system. It is a substance that we know is there, but at present, we have no idea where it is, what it is or how to detect it. Quite elusive stuff, especially given how much of it there is out there. Randell writes with clarity on a difficult subject, although it is occasionally incomprehensible; but that is as much because I am fairly rusty at physics, rather than her explanations. She is well qualified to talk about this being Professor of theoretical particle physics and cosmology at Harvard, but this is one book that might be beyond the general science reader, even though they should probably give it a go.
November 1, 2021
An intriguing combination of topics that capture the imagination if anyone who wonders about the structure of the universe and the world around. Lisa picks two areas of research that are quite active, with the aim to connect them. Although the proposed theory that motivated the book is probably quite speculative and I found myself skimming through a lot of those parts, it was a nice refresher on various aspects of our understanding of the world ranging from early universe cosmology, the solar system, the origins and extinctions of life on earth and the scientific method that led us to discover all of these fascinating concepts.
I loved the presentation which was at just the right level for someone who had heard of the basic ideas but wanted to know some more about them. More so I thought the writing style was generally fun and engaging.
I loved the presentation which was at just the right level for someone who had heard of the basic ideas but wanted to know some more about them. More so I thought the writing style was generally fun and engaging.
June 4, 2021
I very much enjoyed Lisa Randall’s
Knocking on Heaven’s Door
, which provided a layperson like me with a cogent explanation of the Standard Model that underpins modern particle physics. Randall is a physicist with a knack for explaining things both enthusiastically and clearly; she’s a good storyteller who doesn’t get too bogged down in trying to get all the details right for us. So I was intrigued enough to put Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs on my to-read list, even if that was years and years ago. Now that I’ve read it, all I can say is: wow. What an interesting take on a popular physics book.
The title hints at how different this book is going to be. How could the dinosaurs be connected at all with dark matter? Randall has a plausible scientific theory—this book is not science fiction or fantasy—but I want to be up front with anyone considering reading this book: this is a thought experiment. Randall and her collaborator, Matthew Reece, decided to investigate the possibility that the solar system’s passage through a hypothetical disk of dark matter embedded in the galactic plane might disturb comets from the Oort cloud and periodically send them into the solar system in a way that could lead to a devastating, extinction-level impact on Earth. Their work is built on decades of investigations into extinctions, the theory of periodic impacts from space, and of course, the nature and distribution of dark matter in our universe. Everything they say here is (as far as I can tell) plausible from a scientific perspective but also highly theoretical. Just keep that in mind as you read.
Also be aware that much of this book discusses neither dark matter nor dinosaurs! Never fear, they do come up, especially towards the end. But there is a lot of build-up first. In this respect, the book’s subtitle—The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe—is quite apt, and this is probably the make-or-break selling point of the book for people. Either you appreciate how Randall tells the story or you don’t. The first few parts of the book develop our basic understanding of the universe itself and our particular corner of it. In particular, Randall explains where impactors—asteroids, comets, meteoroids—come from. She does a good job helping us wrap our heads around the vastness of our solar system as well. Those school models of the planets all neatly lined up at distances not to scale warp our ideas about how big the solar system is—Randall makes it clear that our solar system is vast and mostly empty, but there is a lot about the composition of its fringes (like the Oort cloud) that we’re still unsure of because it’s so far away and hard to probe.
The middle of the book is mostly about the effects of impacts on Earth. While the dinosaurs come up here and there, they aren’t the main story. Randall is more interested in explaining about craters, how we investigate their properties, and what they can tell us about the nature of the impact and impactor itself. This part was extremely interesting and valuable to me. Randall strives to help us understand that science is a fallible but hopefully self-correcting process. As with the story in Fossil Men , this is a story about people’s egos and different theories running up against each other, looking for evidence either way. Things I took for granted growing up, like the fact that the extinction of the dinosaurs was kicked off by an impact off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, were only accepted very recently! And the story of how these theories were formed and investigated in incredibly interesting and full of drama. (Hearing about all the messy drama is probably my favourite thing about reading popular science books, let’s be real!)
So it’s a lot of setup before we finally arrive at the end of the book, where Randall unspools the theory she and Reece have cooked up. I explained it above, and that’s about all the detail I can give, because I am not an astrophysicist! I appreciate the care with which Randall explains competing models of dark matter and how she reminds us, over and over, that what she and Reece are proposing is just one idea among many. Sometimes scientists become too invested in promoting or hyping up their own theories when the evidence isn’t there yet. Randall doesn’t do this, and it makes me respect her all the more.
Yes, it might seem silly to some people to write an entire book about a hypothetical scenario. Yes, it might seem odd that Randall has spent so much time investigating a connection between physics and extinction events that doesn’t seem to have any practical consequences for humans here and now. In my opinion, however, this book has a great deal of merit. It demonstrates how science is a creative process. I love the way Randall describes how she and Reece went about forming their theory, from reviewing existing literature to gathering datasets to forming their hypotheses. She makes it clear that this is a fun project for them, but she also explains its value: by searching for evidence that supports or rules out their theory, they might further refine our understanding of dark matter in general. Similarly, if their theory helps us to understand impact events and whether or not they are periodic, this might help paleontologists further refine our understanding of the history of life on Earth! None of this would happen if two physicists didn’t decide one day to get creative. I know any physicist (or scientist in general) who reads this review might not be surprised—I bet all of you are a fairly creative bunch! But that isn’t the picture we’re painted, especially in schools where we are not taught science in a creative, messy way like we were from The Magic School Bus. And that’s a shame.
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs might not hold a revolutionary new discovery within. But it shows us the value of looking at connections, of being interdisciplinary, and of creative thinking. These are qualities scientists need, and this book helps you think a little more like a scientist.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
The title hints at how different this book is going to be. How could the dinosaurs be connected at all with dark matter? Randall has a plausible scientific theory—this book is not science fiction or fantasy—but I want to be up front with anyone considering reading this book: this is a thought experiment. Randall and her collaborator, Matthew Reece, decided to investigate the possibility that the solar system’s passage through a hypothetical disk of dark matter embedded in the galactic plane might disturb comets from the Oort cloud and periodically send them into the solar system in a way that could lead to a devastating, extinction-level impact on Earth. Their work is built on decades of investigations into extinctions, the theory of periodic impacts from space, and of course, the nature and distribution of dark matter in our universe. Everything they say here is (as far as I can tell) plausible from a scientific perspective but also highly theoretical. Just keep that in mind as you read.
Also be aware that much of this book discusses neither dark matter nor dinosaurs! Never fear, they do come up, especially towards the end. But there is a lot of build-up first. In this respect, the book’s subtitle—The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe—is quite apt, and this is probably the make-or-break selling point of the book for people. Either you appreciate how Randall tells the story or you don’t. The first few parts of the book develop our basic understanding of the universe itself and our particular corner of it. In particular, Randall explains where impactors—asteroids, comets, meteoroids—come from. She does a good job helping us wrap our heads around the vastness of our solar system as well. Those school models of the planets all neatly lined up at distances not to scale warp our ideas about how big the solar system is—Randall makes it clear that our solar system is vast and mostly empty, but there is a lot about the composition of its fringes (like the Oort cloud) that we’re still unsure of because it’s so far away and hard to probe.
The middle of the book is mostly about the effects of impacts on Earth. While the dinosaurs come up here and there, they aren’t the main story. Randall is more interested in explaining about craters, how we investigate their properties, and what they can tell us about the nature of the impact and impactor itself. This part was extremely interesting and valuable to me. Randall strives to help us understand that science is a fallible but hopefully self-correcting process. As with the story in Fossil Men , this is a story about people’s egos and different theories running up against each other, looking for evidence either way. Things I took for granted growing up, like the fact that the extinction of the dinosaurs was kicked off by an impact off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula, were only accepted very recently! And the story of how these theories were formed and investigated in incredibly interesting and full of drama. (Hearing about all the messy drama is probably my favourite thing about reading popular science books, let’s be real!)
So it’s a lot of setup before we finally arrive at the end of the book, where Randall unspools the theory she and Reece have cooked up. I explained it above, and that’s about all the detail I can give, because I am not an astrophysicist! I appreciate the care with which Randall explains competing models of dark matter and how she reminds us, over and over, that what she and Reece are proposing is just one idea among many. Sometimes scientists become too invested in promoting or hyping up their own theories when the evidence isn’t there yet. Randall doesn’t do this, and it makes me respect her all the more.
Yes, it might seem silly to some people to write an entire book about a hypothetical scenario. Yes, it might seem odd that Randall has spent so much time investigating a connection between physics and extinction events that doesn’t seem to have any practical consequences for humans here and now. In my opinion, however, this book has a great deal of merit. It demonstrates how science is a creative process. I love the way Randall describes how she and Reece went about forming their theory, from reviewing existing literature to gathering datasets to forming their hypotheses. She makes it clear that this is a fun project for them, but she also explains its value: by searching for evidence that supports or rules out their theory, they might further refine our understanding of dark matter in general. Similarly, if their theory helps us to understand impact events and whether or not they are periodic, this might help paleontologists further refine our understanding of the history of life on Earth! None of this would happen if two physicists didn’t decide one day to get creative. I know any physicist (or scientist in general) who reads this review might not be surprised—I bet all of you are a fairly creative bunch! But that isn’t the picture we’re painted, especially in schools where we are not taught science in a creative, messy way like we were from The Magic School Bus. And that’s a shame.
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs might not hold a revolutionary new discovery within. But it shows us the value of looking at connections, of being interdisciplinary, and of creative thinking. These are qualities scientists need, and this book helps you think a little more like a scientist.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
January 1, 2016
Okay! So I didn't actually finish this wonderful book. I just ran out of time on the library book and realized that I'd need to buy a copy. This isn't the sort of thing you just rush right through. It's necessary to chew over some of these strange things that we are apparently surrounded by and composed of and that pass right through us all the time. It's not the kinda thing you should necessarily read while trying to fall asleep. This is too complicated for a sleepy brain. Then on the other hand, you don't really want to dream about this stuff. Yunno. Think about it. Like, you might not come back from your trip way out there or down there. This is nothing to trifle with.
However, Lisa does a wonderful job writing this all down for the rest of us. Thanks so much for this monumental effort. Also, her astrophysics jokes are stellar! I think this is the kind of book you would want to read with your morning coffee--forget Facebook and the news. Then after, you can have a little nap while it all settles into place. After which you'll be ready for a nice day working in the garden or the woodshop.
Cheers! Y'all and keep looking UP!
Jim in MT
However, Lisa does a wonderful job writing this all down for the rest of us. Thanks so much for this monumental effort. Also, her astrophysics jokes are stellar! I think this is the kind of book you would want to read with your morning coffee--forget Facebook and the news. Then after, you can have a little nap while it all settles into place. After which you'll be ready for a nice day working in the garden or the woodshop.
Cheers! Y'all and keep looking UP!
Jim in MT
September 6, 2023
“Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe” is a fascinating book that explores the possible link between the mysterious dark matter and the extinction of dinosaurs. Written by Lisa Randall, a renowned Harvard astrophysicist, the book takes us on an intellectual adventure through the history of the cosmos, showing how events in the farthest reaches of the Universe created the conditions for life and death on our planet.
The book is divided into four parts: The Solar System, The Galaxy, Dark Matter, and Extinction. In each part, Randall explains the relevant scientific concepts and discoveries in a clear and engaging way, using analogies, examples, and illustrations. She also shares her personal stories and insights, revealing her passion and curiosity for the subject matter.
The main hypothesis of the book is that a disk of dark matter exists in the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, and that this disk could have caused gravitational perturbations that dislodged a comet from its orbit, sending it crashing into Earth 66 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs and most other species. Randall admits that this is a speculative idea, but she provides compelling arguments and evidence to support it. She also discusses the implications and challenges of this hypothesis, as well as the alternative explanations for the extinction event.
Randall’s book is not only a scientific inquiry, but also a philosophical reflection on the nature of reality and our place in it. She shows how dark matter, which makes up most of the matter in the Universe but remains elusive and invisible to us, reveals the limits of our knowledge and perception. She also shows how dark matter, despite being seemingly unrelated to our everyday lives, could have had a profound impact on our evolution and history. She invites us to appreciate the astounding interconnectedness of the Universe, and to wonder about the unknown possibilities that await us.
“Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs” is a captivating and enlightening book that will appeal to anyone who is interested in cosmology, physics, biology, or history. It is also a testament to Randall’s brilliance and creativity as a scientist and a writer. She manages to make complex and abstract ideas accessible and enjoyable to a general audience, while also challenging them to think critically and imaginatively about the world around them.
The book is divided into four parts: The Solar System, The Galaxy, Dark Matter, and Extinction. In each part, Randall explains the relevant scientific concepts and discoveries in a clear and engaging way, using analogies, examples, and illustrations. She also shares her personal stories and insights, revealing her passion and curiosity for the subject matter.
The main hypothesis of the book is that a disk of dark matter exists in the plane of the Milky Way galaxy, and that this disk could have caused gravitational perturbations that dislodged a comet from its orbit, sending it crashing into Earth 66 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs and most other species. Randall admits that this is a speculative idea, but she provides compelling arguments and evidence to support it. She also discusses the implications and challenges of this hypothesis, as well as the alternative explanations for the extinction event.
Randall’s book is not only a scientific inquiry, but also a philosophical reflection on the nature of reality and our place in it. She shows how dark matter, which makes up most of the matter in the Universe but remains elusive and invisible to us, reveals the limits of our knowledge and perception. She also shows how dark matter, despite being seemingly unrelated to our everyday lives, could have had a profound impact on our evolution and history. She invites us to appreciate the astounding interconnectedness of the Universe, and to wonder about the unknown possibilities that await us.
“Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs” is a captivating and enlightening book that will appeal to anyone who is interested in cosmology, physics, biology, or history. It is also a testament to Randall’s brilliance and creativity as a scientist and a writer. She manages to make complex and abstract ideas accessible and enjoyable to a general audience, while also challenging them to think critically and imaginatively about the world around them.
December 16, 2015
Did dark matter cause the demise of dinosaurs?
In this book entitled, “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe,” Harvard University Professor Lisa Randall proposes a very speculative idea that the mass extinctions of dinosaurs that occurred 65 million years ago was due to an impact of a comet dislodged from its orbit around the solar system. It’s a tall claim with no experimental support, but the book offers alternative explanation for a seemingly slam-dunk debate. Her original research paper appeared in on online journal at: arxiv.org/abs/1403.0576.
The theoretical assertion is that dark matter can clump up into a thin, flat disc in the Milky Way Galaxy’s plane, and as the solar system orbits the center of the galaxy, it oscillates up and down on a regular cycle, and it would pass through the dark matter disc every 35 million years. Such an event is likely to dislodge comets orbiting the solar system and shoots directly towards earth. Though dark matter is estimated to account for 85% of total mass of the universe, these particles are not yet detected since they do not interact with the visible matter. However their presence is explained through their gravitational influence in clusters of galaxies. They also reside in spherical “halos” around galaxies. Professor Randall suggests that a fraction of dark matter also experiences a force analogous to electromagnetism, which she calls “dark light.” Through its interactions with “dark light” this weird subset of dark matter could form an invisible disk that overlaps with the visible disk of spiral arms in our Milky Way galaxy. This dark disk might have interrupted the orbit of a comet on the outer fringes of the solar system, sending it on a collision course with earth approximately about 70 million years ago. She observes that the crater record on Earth indicates nonrandom impacts at regular intervals of approximately 35 million year periodicity.
The sequence of events connecting dark matter to demise of dinosaurs is very slim: We still need to define the identity of dark matter and whether there is a pattern to comet strikes on Earth. The earth is regularly impacted by asteroids more than comets, and secondly, in the recent history of earth, giant planets like Jupiter has watched over earth like a big brother and kept earth out of harm’s way by gravitationally pulling many comets. The Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 hit Jupiter in July 1994, and in Nov 2013, comet ISON hit sun head-on bringing its own death. Thus we have Sun and Jupiter to watch over earth. In addition, one needs to distinguish earth craters formed by comet and asteroid impacts.
Recent studies have suggested that the asteroid that hit Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago also intensified volcanic eruptions in the Deccan Plateau in South Asia. Volcanic eruptions became twice as intense, throwing out a deadly cocktail of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. The shockwaves produced at this time shook up earth and its volcanic “plumbing systems” around the world, creating larger magma chambers that spewed out more material. This cataclysmic event also deprived oxygen in oceans thus killing thousands of aquatic species. This “combined effect” is now believed to be responsible for wiping out dinosaurs. But Professor Randall’s proposal suggest that dinosaur demise occurred 70 million years ago, thus introducing a large discrepancy between theory and factual observation. Other possible experiments to prove this hypothesis is that we need to look for the presence of such a disk in Milky Way by studying the gravitational effects on other stars in the galaxy. The recently launched Gaia telescope will map the motion of a billion stars in our galaxy, and this study may reveal the presence of dark matter disc. Professor Randall’s proposal has more questions than answers, but it is certainly a fascinating theoretical idea.
In this book entitled, “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe,” Harvard University Professor Lisa Randall proposes a very speculative idea that the mass extinctions of dinosaurs that occurred 65 million years ago was due to an impact of a comet dislodged from its orbit around the solar system. It’s a tall claim with no experimental support, but the book offers alternative explanation for a seemingly slam-dunk debate. Her original research paper appeared in on online journal at: arxiv.org/abs/1403.0576.
The theoretical assertion is that dark matter can clump up into a thin, flat disc in the Milky Way Galaxy’s plane, and as the solar system orbits the center of the galaxy, it oscillates up and down on a regular cycle, and it would pass through the dark matter disc every 35 million years. Such an event is likely to dislodge comets orbiting the solar system and shoots directly towards earth. Though dark matter is estimated to account for 85% of total mass of the universe, these particles are not yet detected since they do not interact with the visible matter. However their presence is explained through their gravitational influence in clusters of galaxies. They also reside in spherical “halos” around galaxies. Professor Randall suggests that a fraction of dark matter also experiences a force analogous to electromagnetism, which she calls “dark light.” Through its interactions with “dark light” this weird subset of dark matter could form an invisible disk that overlaps with the visible disk of spiral arms in our Milky Way galaxy. This dark disk might have interrupted the orbit of a comet on the outer fringes of the solar system, sending it on a collision course with earth approximately about 70 million years ago. She observes that the crater record on Earth indicates nonrandom impacts at regular intervals of approximately 35 million year periodicity.
The sequence of events connecting dark matter to demise of dinosaurs is very slim: We still need to define the identity of dark matter and whether there is a pattern to comet strikes on Earth. The earth is regularly impacted by asteroids more than comets, and secondly, in the recent history of earth, giant planets like Jupiter has watched over earth like a big brother and kept earth out of harm’s way by gravitationally pulling many comets. The Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 hit Jupiter in July 1994, and in Nov 2013, comet ISON hit sun head-on bringing its own death. Thus we have Sun and Jupiter to watch over earth. In addition, one needs to distinguish earth craters formed by comet and asteroid impacts.
Recent studies have suggested that the asteroid that hit Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago also intensified volcanic eruptions in the Deccan Plateau in South Asia. Volcanic eruptions became twice as intense, throwing out a deadly cocktail of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. The shockwaves produced at this time shook up earth and its volcanic “plumbing systems” around the world, creating larger magma chambers that spewed out more material. This cataclysmic event also deprived oxygen in oceans thus killing thousands of aquatic species. This “combined effect” is now believed to be responsible for wiping out dinosaurs. But Professor Randall’s proposal suggest that dinosaur demise occurred 70 million years ago, thus introducing a large discrepancy between theory and factual observation. Other possible experiments to prove this hypothesis is that we need to look for the presence of such a disk in Milky Way by studying the gravitational effects on other stars in the galaxy. The recently launched Gaia telescope will map the motion of a billion stars in our galaxy, and this study may reveal the presence of dark matter disc. Professor Randall’s proposal has more questions than answers, but it is certainly a fascinating theoretical idea.
June 2, 2017
Overall, I don't think Dr. Randall has the skill as a writer to pull off a pop-science book like this.
The level of the material is all over the place -- and given the breadth of the material, it is bound to be all over the place for most readers -- and she has done a poor job of explaining what needed to be explained when the material was new to me, and keeping me interested when the material was not.
For instance, there are statements like this: "The percentage of energy in dark matter is about 26 percent, in ordinary matter about 5 percent, and in dark energy about 69 percent.", which leads me to wonder about the energy in ordinary energy (if that even makes sense) and want to understand what the relationship between dark matter and dark energy is. But it either isn't explained, or isn't explained well. A definition of energy might have helped too.
And then long sections on dinosaurs which are at a 6th grade earth science level, and which drag on forever, and where Dr. Randall sticks in anecdotes about rock climbing. The dinosaur chunks are not her area of expertise.
There are also some truly terrible analogies, like having ordinary and dark matter be NPR listeners and Fox News watchers, which have minimal overlap and interaction. There are also digressions into public vs. private ownership of craters, and Citizens United gets a few mentions. And more rock climbing.
Dr. Randall also has a tendency of repeating things again and again in slightly different words -- I'm not sure if this helps people understand things or not, but it can get tiresome once you understand something.
Also, rock climbing. She keeps sticking in anecdotes that are more about her than the science. If the rest of the book was better written, I don't think it would have annoyed me, but it was like someone screaming "I'm personable!" over and over.
The underlying science is interesting, but the book itself was a painful slog to finish. I don't think I will read another book by her unless she is collaborating with someone who is a better writer (which I wish she would do, since the science around dark matter is interesting)
There was one spot where a paragraph ends in mid-sentence, which
The level of the material is all over the place -- and given the breadth of the material, it is bound to be all over the place for most readers -- and she has done a poor job of explaining what needed to be explained when the material was new to me, and keeping me interested when the material was not.
For instance, there are statements like this: "The percentage of energy in dark matter is about 26 percent, in ordinary matter about 5 percent, and in dark energy about 69 percent.", which leads me to wonder about the energy in ordinary energy (if that even makes sense) and want to understand what the relationship between dark matter and dark energy is. But it either isn't explained, or isn't explained well. A definition of energy might have helped too.
And then long sections on dinosaurs which are at a 6th grade earth science level, and which drag on forever, and where Dr. Randall sticks in anecdotes about rock climbing. The dinosaur chunks are not her area of expertise.
There are also some truly terrible analogies, like having ordinary and dark matter be NPR listeners and Fox News watchers, which have minimal overlap and interaction. There are also digressions into public vs. private ownership of craters, and Citizens United gets a few mentions. And more rock climbing.
Dr. Randall also has a tendency of repeating things again and again in slightly different words -- I'm not sure if this helps people understand things or not, but it can get tiresome once you understand something.
Also, rock climbing. She keeps sticking in anecdotes that are more about her than the science. If the rest of the book was better written, I don't think it would have annoyed me, but it was like someone screaming "I'm personable!" over and over.
The underlying science is interesting, but the book itself was a painful slog to finish. I don't think I will read another book by her unless she is collaborating with someone who is a better writer (which I wish she would do, since the science around dark matter is interesting)
There was one spot where a paragraph ends in mid-sentence, which
April 12, 2022
I’ve read a number of books about Dark Matter and Dark Energy but none of them mentioned Dinosaurs and, really, what overgrown kid could resist a book about dinosaurs.
Dr. Lisa Randall has written a fascinating and engaging book. It takes a special skill to write a scientific book that can be read by non-scientists that manages to present the important data without dumbing down the subject matter. Randall’s engaging writing style puts enough of her personal feelings and interests on the page to transform what could be a boring science tome into an interesting page turner.
For those readers with little or not knowledge about Dark Matter, Astronomy, and Cosmology, don’t worry as Randall devotes the first two thirds of this book to introduce the reader to the major discoveries of the past several decades. Only after she has made sure you have a firm foundation into what is currently known does she introduce her idea of a dark matter disk and its influence on objects that make up the Oort belt.
Randall’s book would be fascinating as just a primer on the formation of the universe and the theories about earth’s six extinction events. Her ideas about dark matter are the icing on the cake as she proposes some theories about dark matter that really make you sit up and think.
For those of you who are not yet fascinated by dark matter and dark energy, consider that normal matter - the stuff we can sense - adds up to less than 5% of what makes up the universe. I doubt you would want to read 5% of a book, eat 5% of a slice of cake, or feel only 5% of the love you have for your partner. Dark matter and dark energy are what science will be all about this century and Randall has written a great book to get you up to speed on what all of the excitement is about.
Dr. Lisa Randall has written a fascinating and engaging book. It takes a special skill to write a scientific book that can be read by non-scientists that manages to present the important data without dumbing down the subject matter. Randall’s engaging writing style puts enough of her personal feelings and interests on the page to transform what could be a boring science tome into an interesting page turner.
For those readers with little or not knowledge about Dark Matter, Astronomy, and Cosmology, don’t worry as Randall devotes the first two thirds of this book to introduce the reader to the major discoveries of the past several decades. Only after she has made sure you have a firm foundation into what is currently known does she introduce her idea of a dark matter disk and its influence on objects that make up the Oort belt.
Randall’s book would be fascinating as just a primer on the formation of the universe and the theories about earth’s six extinction events. Her ideas about dark matter are the icing on the cake as she proposes some theories about dark matter that really make you sit up and think.
For those of you who are not yet fascinated by dark matter and dark energy, consider that normal matter - the stuff we can sense - adds up to less than 5% of what makes up the universe. I doubt you would want to read 5% of a book, eat 5% of a slice of cake, or feel only 5% of the love you have for your partner. Dark matter and dark energy are what science will be all about this century and Randall has written a great book to get you up to speed on what all of the excitement is about.
November 12, 2019
I read this in support of my Grade 8 son who for some unknown and incomprehensible reason was assigned this as his year-long inquiry “novel” for English class. He struggled along with it for a couple of months until I couldn’t take his moaning and whinging about it anymore so I sat down to read it in the hopes that I can decipher it for him. Well. I almost need someone to decipher it for me! And I’ve taken two years of university-level physics and one astronomy class so I’m not a complete neophyte. And yet, this is a lot of deep thinking over the formation of the universe and all and sundry that came from that including dark matter.
Don’t get me wrong some of the information is interesting and certainly new to me. I had no idea that dark matter was anything more real than the sci-fi multiverse-causing stuff of novels and movies. But apparently it is real.
But sometimes Lisa Randall writes in a way that only theoretical physics folk could get. For example when she says that the best evidence of dark matter is gravitational lensing measurements I didn’t immediately say to myself “ah yes, of course!” Because I have no direct relationship to that type of measurement.
The best bit of info - for me - is that I’ve been calling meteors the wrong thing all along. Meteors are the visible tails of light that we see when a meteoroid is falling through the atmosphere. And if a meteoroid actually hits the Earth it’s now called a meteorite.
As for my son? Well. I’ve summed up what I think I understand about what I read and he’s now back in his room working on essay #1 about this work. Good luck to him.
Don’t get me wrong some of the information is interesting and certainly new to me. I had no idea that dark matter was anything more real than the sci-fi multiverse-causing stuff of novels and movies. But apparently it is real.
But sometimes Lisa Randall writes in a way that only theoretical physics folk could get. For example when she says that the best evidence of dark matter is gravitational lensing measurements I didn’t immediately say to myself “ah yes, of course!” Because I have no direct relationship to that type of measurement.
The best bit of info - for me - is that I’ve been calling meteors the wrong thing all along. Meteors are the visible tails of light that we see when a meteoroid is falling through the atmosphere. And if a meteoroid actually hits the Earth it’s now called a meteorite.
As for my son? Well. I’ve summed up what I think I understand about what I read and he’s now back in his room working on essay #1 about this work. Good luck to him.
July 6, 2016
I will read this book again. Randall brings out a very interesting point that has been lifted to be the title statement. She does the usual summarization of the development of the universe but with an emphasis on dark matter -- commonly given little or no consideration in most texts. She then describes dark matter, differentiates it from dark energy and black holes, and talks about it's place in the universe. Note that most of this is based on predictions and hypothetical information gleaned from observations.
Her writing is largely a compilation of research both of her own and of others. She is careful to attribute all ideas not her own to those researchers. Her analysis of the research is the critical mass of the writing. I found this fascinating, but my memory requires another read.
She takes the reader through the history of dinosaurs early in the book. It is not until near the end that she clearly ties the dark matter possibility with their extinction. Ferreting out that possible relationship was a monumental task with much creative and analytic thinking. She describes her group that worked on the project and the methods they used to come to their conclusions. As a true scientist, she carefully stays within the bounds of their work and does not claim a major truth. She leaves open the opportunity for other scientists to disprove her work.
Her story is interesting but I also enjoyed her careful explanation of her process.
Her writing is largely a compilation of research both of her own and of others. She is careful to attribute all ideas not her own to those researchers. Her analysis of the research is the critical mass of the writing. I found this fascinating, but my memory requires another read.
She takes the reader through the history of dinosaurs early in the book. It is not until near the end that she clearly ties the dark matter possibility with their extinction. Ferreting out that possible relationship was a monumental task with much creative and analytic thinking. She describes her group that worked on the project and the methods they used to come to their conclusions. As a true scientist, she carefully stays within the bounds of their work and does not claim a major truth. She leaves open the opportunity for other scientists to disprove her work.
Her story is interesting but I also enjoyed her careful explanation of her process.
May 9, 2017
I was hugely disappointed by this book. I was led astray by the words "astounding interconnectedness" in the title. Do you remember the 1970s series Connections?. In it James Burke links together a whole bunch of developments and changes in technology, climate, finance, politics, geography, and social organization, to show the way "history" is an intricate web in which every affects everything else. Bill Bryson does the same thing in his beautifully readable A Short History of Nearly Everything. From the title I was expecting a book with this same approach. Instead I got a stock standard explanation of what is undeniably cool science, but there was literally nothing in here that was new, and the contents weren't presented in a new way, or exploring new contexts.
It didn't help that I didn't like Randall's voice.
I am a sad bunny.
1.5 stars
It didn't help that I didn't like Randall's voice.
I am a sad bunny.
1.5 stars
January 9, 2017
2nd book for 2017.
The central thesis of this book is mostly probably wrong, and it doesn't matter.
In this book, Randall puts forward the argument that as our solar system passes through the central plane of the Milky Way galaxy every 30-35 million years, it passes through disc of dark matter, which leads to gravitational disruption of the Oort (comet) cloud at the edge of our solar system, leading some comets in the cloud hurtling towards the Sun and (occasionally) impacting with the Earth.
The part about the dark matter disc is highly speculative (there is lots of evidence for dark matter, but few people believe in a dark matter disc). There is not very strong evidence for periodic extinction events caused by comets (the demise of the dinosaurs is obviously a singular event, and the evidence for regular comet impacts is sketchy). But who cares? Randall writes beautifully about both dark matter and demise of the dinosaurs, as well as much in between (the creation of the Universe, the solar system, the impacts in general).
The central thesis of this book is mostly probably wrong, and it doesn't matter.
In this book, Randall puts forward the argument that as our solar system passes through the central plane of the Milky Way galaxy every 30-35 million years, it passes through disc of dark matter, which leads to gravitational disruption of the Oort (comet) cloud at the edge of our solar system, leading some comets in the cloud hurtling towards the Sun and (occasionally) impacting with the Earth.
The part about the dark matter disc is highly speculative (there is lots of evidence for dark matter, but few people believe in a dark matter disc). There is not very strong evidence for periodic extinction events caused by comets (the demise of the dinosaurs is obviously a singular event, and the evidence for regular comet impacts is sketchy). But who cares? Randall writes beautifully about both dark matter and demise of the dinosaurs, as well as much in between (the creation of the Universe, the solar system, the impacts in general).
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