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Understanding Catastrophe examines the immense and varied
impact that catastrophic change can have on the development of life on earth.
Opening with a remarkable account of supernovae and the nature
of stellar catastrophe, it then examines the way evolution itself can proceed
through genetic jumps of catastrophic proportions. The primal forces of the earth,
manifested in such natural catastrophes as earthquakes and cyclones, and the devastating
impact these can have even today on human populations across the world receive
extended scrutiny as does the power of famine historically in determining the
future of humankind. To conclude, a fascinating final chapter on changing medical
and social attitudes to epidemic diseases such as tuberculosis offers -- in the
age of AIDS particularly -- some unsettling insights into our fundamental incapacity
when confronted by major threats to life and health. The
book originates in the fifth annual series of Darwin College Lectures, delivered
in Cambridge in 1990 under the title 'Catastrophes.' The contributors include
Robert Kirshner on Stellar Catastrophe; Walter Alvarez on the Extinction of the
Dinosaurs; Martin Rudwick on Darwin and Catastrophe; Christopher Zeeman on Catastrophe
and Evolution; Claudio Vita Finzi on Earthquakes; Nicholas Cook on Storms and
Cyclones; Peter Garnsey on Famine and History; and Roy Porter on Changing Attitudes
to Disease. |
