4 ms·

Wikipedia is the last place to look for the state of current scholarship. That page is 'curated', as many are, by a retired history professor desperate to fend

Wikipedia is the last place to look for the state of current scholarship. That page is 'curated', as many are, by a retired history professor desperate to fend off progress. Eventually he will give up, or die, and get out of the way. Among working geologists, there is no discussion about whether it happened, and only about how. A recent survey article is Sweatman, The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis: Review of the impact evidence https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00128 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00128... The remaining controversy is how much the strike contributed to the Younger Dryas development and other coincident events, including extinctions. Opponents have been disgracefully sloppy and disingenuous. Sweatman is very generous.

enriquto 4y ago
Thanks for the clarification. The talk page of the wikipedia article that I linked already shows that this is quite a "hot" topic. These scientific controversies are really fun to follow. In mathematics there's not as much drama! We barely have a handful of crackpot proofs of Riemann hypothesis per decade. (Except in theoretical computer science, thanks to the inestimable input of quantum computing people).
- moloch-hai 4y ago
  It is pathetic that it was ever controversial, another victim of militant uniformitarianism. People actually insisted it was impossible because a comet strike could not be so recent, as if there was a schedule, and as if we know them all. Turns out we didn't! And there isn't. A valid proof of Riemann that fails to elucidate primes would face deep apathy, and would probably never be reviewed properly, rejected over spurious nitpicks. There might even be one.
moloch-hai 4y ago
Sorry, that link is https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825221001781 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00128...

enriquto 4y ago

Thanks for the clarification. The talk page of the wikipedia article that I linked already shows that this is quite a "hot" topic. These scientific controversies are really fun to follow. In mathematics there's not as much drama! We barely have a handful of crackpot proofs of Riemann hypothesis per decade. (Except in theoretical computer science, thanks to the inestimable input of quantum computing people).

moloch-hai 4y ago
It is pathetic that it was ever controversial, another victim of militant uniformitarianism. People actually insisted it was impossible because a comet strike could not be so recent, as if there was a schedule, and as if we know them all. Turns out we didn't! And there isn't. A valid proof of Riemann that fails to elucidate primes would face deep apathy, and would probably never be reviewed properly, rejected over spurious nitpicks. There might even be one.

moloch-hai 4y ago

Sorry, that link is https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0012825221001781 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00128...