Dinosaurs,Nuclear Winter,and Kanizsa Figures: In Defense of Pure Science and Intellectual Curiosity

Abstract

The practical implications of the nuclear winter scenario have been widely discussed. This scenario offers an elegant example of the application of several lines of pure research to a pressing real-world problem. Before the recent synthesis of findings in the areas of paleontology, historical geology, and astronomy, it was not obvious that research in any of these areas—particularly on the extinction of the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago—would ever have the slightest bearing on the question of the possible self-destruction of the human species, perhaps the most pressing issue of our time. Similarly, it is not always obvious which avenues of pure research in psychology might turn out to have unexpected applications in the real world.