The seashell on the mountaintop
Subtitle: a story of science, sainthood, and the humble genius who discovered a new history of the earth
By: Alan Cutler
Publisher: Dutton
Published: 2003
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 228
Subjects: Steno, Nicolaus, -- 1638-1686; Catholic Church -- Clergy -- Biography; Geology -- History -- 17th century; Scientists -- Denmark -- Biography
Genres: Biography
Description: The tale of a seventeenth-century scientist-turned-priest who forever changed our understanding of the Earth and created a new field of science. It was an ancient puzzle: How did the fossils of seashells find their way far inland, sometimes high up into the mountains? Fossils only made sense in a world old enough to form them, and in the seventeenth century, few people could imagine such a thing--the Old Testament laid out Earth's timescale very clearly. A revolution was in the making, however, and it was started by the brilliant and enigmatic Nicholas Steno, who explored beyond the pages of the Bible, looking directly at the clues left in the layers of the Earth. With his groundbreaking answer to the fossil question, Steno would not only confound the religious and scientific thinking of his own time, he would set the stage for the modern science that came after him.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-214) and index