Stephen Jay Gould Sex Drugs Disasters And The Extinction Of Dinosaurs

In Stephen Jay Gould’s article, “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaur”, he analyses the difference between science and speculation. Gould starts the article by defining science. He states that science allows humans to know and gain knowledge. In contrast, today many popular ideas are being passed as “scientific” but are actually not. To show the difference between real science and pseudoscience Gould presents the question of how the dinosaurs became extinct. The first possibility is the sex hypothesis. This states that dinosaurs may have become extinct because their testes can only function in a certain temperature. Therefore, when the global temperature increased during the Cretaceous period dinosaur’s testes stopped functioning

and they became sterile. The next proposal for dinosaur’s extinction is because of drugs. It states that flowering plants developed extremely close to when the dinosaurs died. Many of these plants have psychoactive chemicals. As a result, dinosaurs possibly became extinct because of massive overdoses. The last proposal for their extinction is the well known theory of a disaster. This hypothesis states that a comet or asteroid hit the earth at the time of the dinosaurs and created a cloud of dust that blocked sunlight. Consequently, photosynthesis ceased and the world’s temperature plummeted. Accordingly, dinosaurs as well as many other creatures became extinct. Each of these proposals for the extinction of dinosaurs are fascinating. In this article the author, Stephen Gould, expands on each of these theories. He explains who developed each of these theories and he explains in depth the reasoning behind them. Although all these theories create excitement in the public only one is real science.
The first theory of testicular failure is only mere speculation.

There isn’t a way to test this hypothesis. As a result, this theory holds little water as true science, although it may hold some validity. The second theory of plant chemical overdosing is also speculation. This theory as well has an untestable hypothesis. The theory that dinosaur extinction was a result of a natural disaster is the definition of real science. It is testable and can be furthered. To test this theory, individuals measured levels of iridium in rocks at the time of the dinosaur’s extinction. Therefore, Iridium is a “the source of testable evidence”. Testable evidence is what separates science and speculation. The testing of iridium alerted many other scientists around the globe to test levels in the rocks at their locations. This fueled the hypothesis and made is well publicly known. The other two theories drifted away and are still not well known. Gould then proves how the theory that the extinction of dinosaurs occurred because of a natural disaster has led to other important findings. He proclaims that because of this theory the renowned scientist, Carl Sagan, studied the climate and nuclear warfare. Sagan found that a nuclear holocaust would instill the same dust cloud that caused the mass deaths of dinosaurs due to blocking the sun. This is also why the Cold War was so

scary.
The structure of this essay is that it offers an argument and gives claims.

Gould’s article, “Sex, Drugs, Disasters and the Extinction of Dinosaurs” begins with an introduction and foreshadowing statement. Gould then develops the body of the article by analyzing each theory for the extinction of dinosaurs. He then states what Science is and then backs up the reason why. Gould then concludes by showing that the theory that natural disasters caused the extinction of dinosaurs, and how this theory has spread and the other fascinating research this led

to.
In this article Gould does offer a refutation to each theory and viewpoint. In Gould’s article he is not only stating which theory he personally believes, he’s stating which theory is the most scientific. Gould states that “good, fruitful, exciting science generates tests, provides us with things to do, and expands outward.” The theory that natural disasters caused the extinction of dinosaurs has been tested, provided us with things to do and expand on. It can be said that this theory is the epitome of science. Gould also says that science “is a fruitful mode of inquiry, not a lit of enticing conclusion”. This stresses the point that science is not knowledge. Science is the mode in which we attain knowledge, this difference is often forgotten.