Believe it or not, this was another "bedtime story," -- I read it aloud to my twelve-year-old. Deeply grateful that I have a degree in environmental mBelieve it or not, this was another "bedtime story," -- I read it aloud to my twelve-year-old. Deeply grateful that I have a degree in environmental microbiology -- so I knew how to pronounce most of the words.
This book was both kind of amazing and also sometimes frustrating. The amazing part is that for a "popular science" book, I have never seen a better portrayal of how science actually happens. The grants, the collaborations, the conferences, working with outside agencies, sharing knowledge and expertise, the establishment of new protocols and paradigms. All that was conveyed by making this a personal narrative -- changing the focus from "here is a bunch of cool science stuff" to "here is how we discovered a bunch of cool science stuff." Though sometimes that got a little too personal for me -- I don't really need to hear about the restaurants you used to hang out and drink in. But I suppose that could be interesting and humanize to other readers.
The science though, is really cool. The idea that there could be microorganisms "living" or at least viable in rocks hundreds or thousands of meters below the surface -- that those microbes could be responsible for some of the geologic processes that we previously thought of as abiotic. Well, it's a notion I'd barely been made acquainted with by my advisor's work on caves when I was in grad school -- but I'd never thought of it much deeper than that. Parts of this book were so exciting to me that they inspired some light internet stalking, some new grad school fantasies and a few geology scientists I now follow on twitter.
The book does get into the nitty-gritty of science, which some reviewers have found to be too tedious or challenging. I am tempted to just say, well, my twelve-year-old enjoyed it. But again, it was being read to him by someone with a degree in environmental microbiology, and we occasionally yelled into the next room to ask materials science questions of my husband. So prepare to be challenged.
For some reason, there was something about the structure of Montgomery's sentences that was giving me a hard time getting into a reading groove. Then,For some reason, there was something about the structure of Montgomery's sentences that was giving me a hard time getting into a reading groove. Then, on the road-trip to and from Kansas this winter, I started reading this aloud to Andrew, and from then on I was in love.
So, it's no secret that literal "scientific" readings of Genesis make me cranky. I've read a lot of refutations of young-Earth creationism from a biology/evolution point of view. And of course some of those have incorporated a little bit of geology -- usually the fossil record, with a tiny bit of tectonic plate theory thrown in. But my understanding of radiometric dating was kind of hazy, and my understanding of how different rocks are forms was stuck at a fourth-grade level. Plus, I've heard many times that the presence of flood stories in almost every culture was an overwhelming argument for the existence of a massive, worldwide flood in Earth's history. So a book subtitled A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood? I knew I had to read it.
This is not a skewering of the creationist position (though that happens a few times along the way.) It's far more interesting than that. It is a story of the history of geology, and how the positions of both the scientists and religious leaders were shaped by the search for evidence of Noah's flood. The form of the story so closely parallels the development of biology & the theory of evolution -- starting out with scientists who were also men of God -- looking to better understand "God's other book," nature, in order to better understand God. Only the names and specific discoveries have changed.
And happily, I feel like I have a much better grasp of those discoveries. A more concrete understanding of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. A much better understanding of radiometric dating. And a new favorite trump card for any literalist debate: mammoths.
Oh! And the quotes! Montgomery pulls the best quotes from Galileo, Thomas Paine, even Saint Augustine!