Max Dresow
* This is the second part of a two-part installment of “Problematica.” In Part 1, I asked how “uniformitarianism” became associated with a view that had not originally been regarded as distinctly uniformitarian— the view that nature’s law are stable in space and time. This meaning-shift happened...
Max Dresow
* This is the forty-fifth installment of my essay series “Problematica.” Once again, it’s about Charles Lyell and uniformitarianism, with guest appearances from Steve Gould, T. C. Chamberlin and Eduard Suess. Because it’s a bit long, I’ve split it into two parts. Part 1 introduces the question I...
Max Dresow
* Of all the things I’ve written for this site, this is maybe my favorite. It hits all the sweet spots: nineteenth century American geology, discarded theories of mountain building, uniformitarianism, and, of course, James Hall— one of the truly incomparable figures in the history of paleontology....
Max Dresow
* This is a special mini-installment of “Problematica.” It’s about something we’ve discussed before on “Extinct,” believe it or not— geopoetry. (Also, this weird thing I wrote about Goethe.) Problematica is written by Max Dresow…I found something that I need to share with you. Not because it’s...
Max Dresow
* This was the first installment of my “Problematica” series, which I wrote way back in 2023. I was reminded of it because my now four-and-a-half year-old son is obsessed with megalodons, and I thought it would be fun to repost. Also, there’s been some interesting megalodon-related research...
Max Dresow
* This is the latest installment of “Problematica.” It is, I suppose, a continuation of my three-part series on periodic diastrophism in American geology (Part 1– Part 2– Part 3). As I observed in that series, the theory of periodic diastrophism was widely credited in American geology during the...