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Astronomy 202: Our Home in the Solar SystemPaper 7You have been asked by the New York Times to write a book review of"Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan. This book is one of the required texts forAstro 202, and you have been assigned the book to read during thissemester. Now, the Times wants to know if (and why) you would or wouldnot recommend this book for others to purchase and read.Remember: a book review is NOT a book report. A book report simplydescribes what is in the book, chapter by chapter. A good book reviewdescribes the subjects that the book covers and puts them into a broaderperspective and context. What are the goals of the book? What are itscontributions to the literature likely to be? Is the material communicatedeffectively? Would you recommend this book to others? Use specificexamples from the text where appropriate, especially for criticisms ofthe work.Book reviews often begin with a broad discussion of the topic and thevarious issues involved, leading in to a specific discussion of the bookitself. An example of a well-written review of a science text is given on theother side of this page. Do not treat this as a template for yourassignment: there are as many styles of book reviews as there are stylesof writing. Look through a copy of this Sunday's New York Times and readthe Book Review section to see many more examples of review styles.Also, feel free to come talk to Kassie or Prof. Campbell or Prof. Bell forguidance.Rules: 2-3 pages maximum in double-spaced 12 point font, which is typically around500 to 800 words. Due: Beginning of class, Thursday April 24, 2008Example of a nicely-written review of a science textbook:Origins of Igneous LayeringIan Parsons (Ed.), D. Reidel, Hingham, Mass, 666 pp., 1987, $124. Anyone who has ever seen a photo of a layered intrusion, let alone visited one first hand, or evenseen a thin section from one, cannot help but be impressed by the stunning record of crystal growthand deposition. Such bodies stand as majestic monuments of undeniable evidence that intricatemagmatic processes exist, processes that couple crystallization, convection, and crystal sorting to formrocks so highly ordered and beautiful that they are a wonder to behold. These are the altars to whichpetrologists must carry their conceived petrologic processes for approval. Although significant in number, the best layered intrusions seem to be found almost always inremote places. Their names, Bushveld, Muskox, Kiglapait, Stillwater, Duke Island, Skaergaard, Rhum,ring through igneous petrology almost as historic military battles (Saratoga, Antietam, Bull Run,Manassas, Gettysburg) do through American history. People who have worked on such bodies arealmost folk heroes: Wager, Deer, Brown, Jackson, Hess, Irvine, McBirney, Morse; these names arepetrological household words. Yet with all this fanfare and reverence, layered intrusions are nearlythought of as period pieces, extreme examples of what can happen, but not generally what does. Thisis now all changing with the increasing realization that these bodies are perhaps highly representativeof all magmatic bodies. They are simply more dynamically complete, containing more of the fullrange of interactions, and of course, exposing a more complete record. They are one end of aspectrum containing lava flows, lava lakes, large sills, plutons, and layered intrusions. This bookuniquely covers this range with an abundance of first-hand field observations and a good dose ofprocess conceptualization, magma physics, and crystal growth kinetics. This is a collection of 20 full-length papers presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshopon Origins of Igneous Layering held during August 1986 at Narsarsuaq in South Greenland.Twenty (lucky) invited experts were ferried about by boat and helicopter and shown some of theworld's most extraordinary and best exposed layered igneous rocks. One can well imagine the levelof daily discussion when the previous day's presentations were then brought to the final court ofappeal, the rocks themselves. The book itself is of normal size, shape, and heft. It is well bound and has the usual cover designof books in this series. The table of contents is nicely detailed, and the page numbers and runningheaders are in their proper places. The text is all camera ready, almost completely free of typos, wellorganized, and well printed; there is a satisfactory subject index. The book can be roughly separatedinto two parts: the first consists of 11 field-based reports arranged broadly "in order of decreasingfractionation of the dominant rock types"; the second part is a series of conceptual, theoretical, andexperimental papers treating layer formation, texture evolution, and crystallization kinetics.Sandwiched between these two parts, which actually blend nicely together, is a collection of 30quarter-page photographs of field examples of layering contributed by the workshop members as awhole. Following the second part are two appendices by T. N. Irvine on nomenclature for layeredrocks and a list of possible processes leading to the formation of layered rocks. Three things set this book apart from most others in this vein: each paper is to the point, worthreading, and even worth studying; the abundant photographs are excellent, not only in choice but inreproduction, continually drawing one into the text; and a strong interawareness of field, experiment,and theory appears in nearly every paper. These features steadily bring the issue of concern to thesurface, that is, to what extent can layered rocks be adequately explained by purely sedimentologicalprocesses and by purely chemical, postdepositional processes. The problem is the same as for saltdeposits. Namely, how is it possible to make a monomineralic layer? Is it by fractionation of aliquid, as in double diffusive convection, by sedimentation, adcumulus growth, and compaction, or bytotal textural requilibration in response to the interaction of early crystals and a chemically evolvingliquid. There is seemingly good field and theoretical evidence all around. These works are so wellfocused that they quantitatively bear on one another rather than, as is more common, passing eachother unnoticed in rhetorical darkness. This book is a landmark publication, literally reeking of wonderful field observations and a hostof well thought out and well presented ideas. Every serious igneous petrologist will want this


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