Of Asteroids and Dinosaurs: The Role of the Press in the Shaping of Scientific Debate

Abstract

Since 1980, catastrophist theories of extinction have experienced a dramatic renaissance, based on the claim that important biological changes have extraterrestrial causes - that asteroids or comets were responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, as well as a host of lesser-known creatures. Formerly relegated to the periphery of evolutionary biology and paleontology, the search for evidence of extraterrestrially instigated extinctions has become a well-funded and rapidly developing area of research, involving scientists from a wide variety of disciplines. In large part, the rapid establishment and diffusion of the `impact' or `asteroid' hypothesis may be attributed to the ways in which the style of the argument, as well as the institutional location of its proponents, has interacted with the system of scientific publication, both professional and popular. Through an analysis of the organization of publication and its relationship to various ideals concerning evidence, argument and `good science', some of the consequences of the organization of communication for the development of scientific thought are suggested.