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Title: The Deep Hot Biosphere : The Myth of Fossil Fuels by Thomas Gold, Freeman Dyson ISBN: 0-387-95253-5 Publisher: Copernicus Books Pub. Date: May, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Compelling arguments
Comment: At first glance, this book struck me as highly suspicious. However, once I began reading it, I quickly came to seriously consider Gold's thesis as tenable. By the end of the book, I was strongly inclined to think that Gold has a much more credible explanation for the source and formation of oil and gas than the de facto one.
Gold does write convincingly, but moreso he presents some very cogent reasons for his abiogenic theory. I'll not attempt to rehash the details, but just say that his theory is parsimonious, involves little hand-waving and uses no dramatics.
There is nothing scientifically outlandish here, unless you have some ideological adherence to the biogenic view. In fact, the biogenic view seems now quite contrived and dubious in retrospect. Gold's view accounts not only for oil, coal and gas, but also confers reasons for formations of biogenic matter - peat and lignite - as well.
Gold's further assertion that a biosphere exists going many kilometers down may have seemed ludicrous years ago, but in light of our knowledge of extremophiles nowadays, his thesis seems very plausible.
As if that weren't going far enough, Gold further asserts that it is far more likely that (assuming life had a terrestrial origin) such life began deep in the earth, not in shallow tidepools or other surface environments. Any origin-of-life theory is very difficult to justify, but Gold's seems as plausible as any, and more plausible than most.
A worthwhile read.
Rating: 5
Summary: A scientific revelation/revolution
Comment: This book is more than a mere milestone. If approached with an open mind, it will revolutionize much traditional thinking in the areas of energy, seismology, and the life sciences.
Professor Gold is an astrophysicist of high repute, who applies his excellent, free-thinking mind and impeccable logic to disciplines outside his chosen field with astonishing success. This disturbs traditionalists and adherents of scientific orthodoxy no end, especially when Dr. Gold, more often than not, is correct in his iconoclasms.
The instant work presents and consolidates Dr. Gold's seminal work in the area of earth sciences. Dr. Gold argues convincingly, and with easily understood reasoning, that petroleum, and even coal, are not biogenic, i.e., created from previously living organisms. Instead, he contends, so-called "fossil fuels" are the result of hydrocarbons being brought up from and through the earth's mantle, and being transformed into their present states by bacteria living in the Earth's crust. These bacteria compose the "deep, hot biosphere" in the book's title. Thus, fossil fuels are a self-renewing resource not nearly as susceptible to the depletion so often forecast by doomsayers.
Dr. Gold's logic appears impeccable to this writer, and the tests he has done to date, such as drilling in the granite of a large Swedish impact structure and finding hydrocarbons where none "should" exist are persuasive indeed. The popular conception of oil, gas, and coal being the remains of once living creatures seems hopelessly out of date in light of Dr. Gold's research.
Dr. Gold goes on to discuss the origin of life, as it relates to microorganisms found in the earth's crust and asks whether these primitive creatures may exist on other planets as well.
Another interesting theory arising from the implications of mobile hydrocarbons in the Earth's interior relates to earthquakes and their prediction. Dr. Gold notes many cultures have spoken of physical changes occuring prior to earthquakes and suggests that these tangible phenomena are related to gases moving in the crust. When a critical point is reached in terms of shifting tensions, Dr. Gold suggests the result is an earthquake.
Interestingly, much Russian research agrees with Dr. Gold on this and other of his theories. Western research appears more bound to orthodox thinking. It is this writer's belief that Dr. Gold and his cohorts have much to say on the true state of the planet beneath us, and its contents.
The book receives my highest recommendation, and it will be interesting to see how much of Dr. Gold's thinking becomes the scientific orthodoxy of the future. The book is rated a must read for anyone with an interest ie earth sceiences, energy issues, or both.
Rating: 5
Summary: Drilling Days of Yesteryear
Comment:
Gold is one of a handful of truly innovative thinkers to come out of the 20th century, but possibly the least well known. His earlier book, "Power from the Earth", shares some of the ground covered in this new edition of this title, and a web search should turn up a page of his material from 1992 which led to this title, but by the time he gets the credit the main idea -- that hydrocarbon fuels are primarily abiogenic rather than "fossil fuels" -- will be uncontroversial. I suspect that the "global warming" demagogues will soon saddle on once they realize that it strengthens their delusional system.
The proven reserves of crude oil have increased twentyfold since 1973, and despite the unfounded claims of the "global warming" and other "greens", oil supplies have continued to increase even as the efficiencies involved in their uses have increased. In mid-2000, former Saudi oil minister Yamani said, "the stone age didn't end because people ran out of stones," basing this on the increase in supply (such as the massive finds in the former Soviet "stan" republics) and the coming decrease in per capita use (fuel cells, particularly in autos).
Those interested in the origin and/or the ancestry of Earthlings will also find this book to be of great interest. Despite a claim in an earlier reader review, there's nothing contradictory in Gold's "deep life". For further reading online, visit the William Corliss site (or not) and search for "The KTB Hole"; additional info can be found with a search on "Siljan Ring", but beware of the naysayer sites that may turn up.
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Title: Origins of Life by Freeman J. Dyson ISBN: 0521626684 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 28 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Oxygen: The Molecule That Made the World by Nick Lane ISBN: 0198508034 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: April, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Hydrogen: The Essential Element by John S. Rigden ISBN: 0674007387 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: May, 2002 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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Title: Life on a Young Planet : The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth by Andrew H. Knoll ISBN: 0691009783 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 17 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: An Empire Wilderness : Travels into America's Future by ROBERT D. KAPLAN ISBN: 0679776877 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 07 September, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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