When humans Nearly Vanished: The Catastrophic Explosion of the Toba Volcano, Donald R. Prothero, 2018, 198 pages, ISBN 9781588346353, Dewey 551.210959When humans Nearly Vanished: The Catastrophic Explosion of the Toba Volcano, Donald R. Prothero, 2018, 198 pages, ISBN 9781588346353, Dewey 551.210959812
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" but "That's funny."--Isaac Asimov, 1987. p. 7.
Current atmospheric carbon dioxide, 410 parts per million, is the highest in 50 million years. p. 13.
PREHISTORY
Humans diverged from chimps 5 million to 7 million years ago. p. 103.
Australopithecines lived from 4 million to 2 million years ago. pp. 91, 122-129.
Homo erectus left Africa 1.8 million years ago. p. 130. Or 1 million years ago p. 142.
Neanderthals diverged from Homo sapiens 588,000 years ago p. 88 or 300,000 years ago p. 141. [but remained able to interbreed--still the same species].
Homo sapiens appeared in southern Africa 100,000 to 300,000 years ago. pp. 1, 141. Or 1.2 million years ago p. 131.
Y-CHROMOSOME ADAM
All human Y chromosomes descend from one African man who lived 200,00 to 300,000 years ago. p. 88.
MITOCHONDRIAL EVE
All human mitochondrial DNA comes from a woman who lived in Africa between 140,000 and 200,000 years ago. p. 86.
TOBA CATASTROPHE
About 74,000 years ago: Humans lived in Africa, Asia, and Europe, but not Australia nor the Americas. p. 1.
Mount Toba (in northwestern Sumatra, Indonesia, west of Malaysia, northwest of Singapore) erupted: the largest eruption in 28 million years. pp. 2, 6, 48. It spewed 720 cubic miles of ash into the atmosphere. p. 4. Global air temperatures fell 5°F to 9°F; it took 10 years to rewarm. p. 5. Or began a 1,000-year or 57,000-year ice age p. 147. The tree line and snow line descended 10,000 vertical feet. pp. 5, 146-147.
VOLCANIC EXPLOSIVITY INDEX pp. 47-49
VEI 0-1 most Hawaiian flows 4 Pelée (Martinique) 1902, > 0.1 km³ or 0.024 mi³ 5 Mount Saint Helens (Washington) 1980, 1 km³ or 0.24 mi³ 5 Vesuvius (Italy) 79 CE, > 1 km³ or 0.24 mi³ 5-6 Pinatubo (Philippines) 1991, 5 to 10 km³ or 1.2 to 2.4 mi³ 6 Krakatau (Indonesia) 1883, 20 km³ or 4.8 mi³. Global air temperatures fell 1°C to 2°C, stayed low for 5 years. 7 Tambora (Indonesia) 1815, > 100 km³ or 24 mi³. Largest in recorded history p. 59. Sulfuric acid and fine ash stayed in the atmosphere for several years. 1816 no summer. Global average air temperature fell 0.7°C. p. 61. Crop failures caused a European famine. p. 63. 8 Yellowstone (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming) 640,000 years ago, 1,000 km³ or 240 mi³ pp. 178-179. 8 Toba (Indonesia) 74,000 years ago, 3,000 km³ or 720 mi³ 8 La Garita (Colorado) 27.8 million years ago, 5,000 km³ or 1,300 mi³ p. 177.
EFFECTS
Only about 5,000 people survived to have now-living descendents. pp. 5, 91.
Several other large-animal species also suffered genetic bottlenecks at about that time. pp. 144-145.
All humans on Earth (except a few of the still-surviving ancient African lineages) are extremely closely-related. p. 183. [?? There are more than a few people in Africa, and everyone's lineage is equally ancient.]
OUT-OF-AFRICA II
Ancestors of native peoples in Eurasia and the Americas left Africa 71,000 to 77,000 years ago. They reached Europe 55,000 years ago, Australia 50,000 years ago, the Americas 13,000 to 16,000, or maybe 30,000, years ago. All living Native Americans descend from 70 individuals who lived 11,000 to 13,000 years ago. pp. 88-89, 91.
HOW WE KNOW
Sulfur dioxide in bubbles trapped in ice from 74,000 years ago was off the scale. p. 14.
Water containing oxygen-16 evaporates more readily than water containing oxygen-18. Polar ice thus has mostly the lighter oxygen isotope. The more polar ice, the higher the oxygen-18 concentration in seawater, and thus in shells of zooplankton in sediments. Minerals in 74,000-year-old sediments had enough oxygen-18 to indicate global air temperatures more than 10°F cooler in just a few hundred years. There was ash at that layer too. pp. 19-20, 148.
UGLY SPIN
Published by Smithsonian Books. Brought to us by our friends the U.S. Government. With a friendly reminder that U.S. military spending is a Good Thing! We let geologists sample the ice we drilled, trying to hide nuclear missiles in Greenland glaciers.
The author is a geologist and a military buff. pp. 14-15, 36.
ERRORS
All human mitochondrial DNA comes from a woman who lived between 140,000 and 200,000 years ago. "In other words, most human fossils more than 200,000 years old are not closely related to anyone living today." p. 86. No, they could be Eve's ancestors.
"All modern humans descend from African ancestors who left that continent less than 100,000 years ago." pp. 87, 183. No, modern Africans descend from African ancestors who never left that continent.
"All of us descend from a common ancestor who left Africa less than 70,000 years ago." p. 183. He had said that we [non-Africans] descend from a /population/ that left around that time. This wording contradicts what he said earlier about Adam and Eve.
Gives metric and English measurements for everything--which often contradict each other: sloppy number-work.
Claims 200,000 dead in 1816-1817 was the worst European famine of the 19th Century, p. 63. To the contrary, 1.1 million Irish starved to death in 1845 and 1846. --Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849, Christopher Clark, 2023, pp. 44-45.
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming, David Wallace-Wells, 2023 edition adapted for young adults, 157 pages, ISBN 9780593483572, Dewey 304.28 WThe Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming, David Wallace-Wells, 2023 edition adapted for young adults, 157 pages, ISBN 9780593483572, Dewey 304.28 W155un new teen collection
mya = million years ago
Extinction events: 450 mya 86% of species dead 380 mya 75% of species dead 255 mya 96% of species dead 205 mya 80% of species dead 70 mya 75% of species dead
All but one of these involved greenhouse-gas-produced climate change. p. 3.
The worst, 255 mya, 96% of species dead, was caused by carbon dioxide raising global air temperature 5°C, leading to methane release. p. 3.
We are now adding carbon to the atmosphere at more than 10 times the rate of 255 mya. p. 4.
We're going to
bake, starve, drown, burn, parch, lose ocean life, choke, sicken, be impoverished, go to war, and worse.
Yet the author says he's optimistic because, "we remain in command."
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming, David Wallace-Wells, 2023 edition adapted for young adults, 157 pages, ISBN 9780593483572, Dewey 304.28 WThe Uninhabitable Earth: Life after Warming, David Wallace-Wells, 2023 edition adapted for young adults, 157 pages, ISBN 9780593483572, Dewey 304.28 W155un new teen collection
mya = million years ago
Extinction events: 450 mya 86% of species dead 380 mya 75% of species dead 255 mya 96% of species dead 205 mya 80% of species dead 70 mya 75% of species dead
All but one of these involved greenhouse-gas-produced climate change. p. 3.
The worst, 255 mya, 96% of species dead, was caused by carbon dioxide raising global air temperature 5°C, leading to methane release. p. 3.
We are now adding carbon to the atmosphere at more than 10 times the rate of 255 mya. p. 4.
We're going to
bake, starve, drown, burn, parch, lose ocean life, choke, sicken, be impoverished, go to war, and worse.
Yet the author says he's optimistic because, "we remain in command."
Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott, 2016, 470 pages, ISBN 9780691157245, DewWelcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott, 2016, 470 pages, ISBN 9780691157245, Dewey 523.1
Electromagnetism is mathematically equivalent to the action of gravity in an extra dimension. p. 349.
The universe began as infinitely dense, but was always infinitely large. --Michael A. Strauss, pp. 220-221.
The universe had a circumference of 3*10^-27 cm at the Big Bang. --J. Richard Gott, p. 377.
v is the speed at which a distant galaxy is fleeing from us
d is its distance from us.
Defines the parsec. 3.26 light-years. p. 58.
We can see light from quasars that was in flight for 12.5 billion years, and from galaxies 6 billion years. p. 353.
Quasars are supermassive black holes with hot gas spiraling in. p. 308.
Radius of a black hole = 2GM/c^2
p. 302.
Tells us that the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies are bound to each other by gravity enough that they're nearing each other. Andromeda light is blueshifted. p. 217.
Modern physics was born in the late 1500s, thanks to Galileo, and modern chemistry was born in the late 1700s, thanks to Lavoisier. The peculiarity thModern physics was born in the late 1500s, thanks to Galileo, and modern chemistry was born in the late 1700s, thanks to Lavoisier. The peculiarity that Galileo and Lavoisier shared, that set them apart from their predecessors in their fields, and allowed them to usher in the modern era in their science, was atheism a diploma phlogiston theory quantitative measurement.
-- "Slow Burn" (1962) in Asimov on Chemistry (1974)...more
Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkins, Bantam edition, 1973, 324 pages, ISBN 9780553271577
While proteins and fats have satiety value, carbohydDr. Atkins' Diet Revolution, Robert C. Atkins, Bantam edition, 1973, 324 pages, ISBN 9780553271577
While proteins and fats have satiety value, carbohydrates provoke hunger by stimulating the insulin release that lowers blood sugar. p. 32.
If you want to lose weight fast, restrict quantities, but not so restricted that you feel deprived. p. 36.
Caffeine and theobromine (in tea) can lead to excess insulin production. p. 63.
My dad went on this diet just after the book came out. After 3 days he noticed his breath smelled like acetone, and he gave it up. That's ketosis. It's benign. It means you're burning fat, instead of sugar.
This 1973 edition adds Atkins' excellent response to the American Medical Association's witch hunt against him. ...more
Thomas Ray
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