Newspaper Article

WHAT DID THE GREYWACKE SAY?

Peter J. Bowler, who teaches the history of science at Queen's University of Belfast, is the author most recently of ''Evolution: The History of an, Idea.'', Peter J. Bowler

1985

Overview

Yet Mr. [Martin J. S. Rudwick] does not go along with the more radical sociologists who argue that all scientific ''knowledge'' is no more than the privately agreed opinion expressed by a group of experts. The Devonian has retained its meaning as a key period in the earth's history, during which terrestrial plants appeared and vertebrate animals became abundant. To use an analogy, for Mr. Rudwick the geologists were attempting to ''map'' the sequence of events in the past, and their arguments finally determined which convention would be seen as the most fruitful way of representing the hidden reality. I T would be a mistake to suppose that so technical an issue could only be of interest to specialist historians of geology. Some chapters of Mr. Rudwick's book may well make heavy going for the uninitiated, but the value of his study lies in the great detail he has furnished on the day-to-day reactions of the scientists engaged in the controversy. The activity of early-19th-century scientists is probably better documented than that of any other period - including the present -thanks to the introduction of an efficient postal service and the absence of that more ephemeral form of communication, the telephone conversation. After years of work in various archives, Mr. Rudwick has unearthed a comprehensive series of letters, notebooks and records of meetings and reconstructed every aspect of the Devonian controversy. Anyone interested in the way science actually works (as opposed to the myths created by philosophers of science and the scientists themselves) cannot fail to be fascinated by this book.

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: Rudwick, Martin J S