After a brief review of the constitution of the solar organization and the accretion of our own human race , Tyson describes Bishop Ussher ’s far-famed effort to leave a exact , begat - found appraisal of the age of the world . Ussher ’s Biblical arithmetic , which places the escort and time of creation at Saturday , Oct 22nd , 4004 BC at 6:00 PM ( presumably Eden Standard Time ) abide for class as the classical old age of creation until scientists began examine the geological layer of the Earth .
But as the layer of stone substitute the chronological succession of begats , we found that calculating the precise age of the Earth is beyond the scope of the geological platter . level that usually take century to constitute can make in an instant during a ruinous flood . And the participating geology of the Earth intend that the lowest accessible layer of the geological record are still far youthful than the Earth itself .
So while the geologic track record is fantastic for telling us the gild of relatively recent effect , we have to look elsewhere to find a more reliable clock , one that runs at the same gait regardless of environmental conditions or ruinous events .
And so we play the hero of this particular fable , a Manhattan Project scientist by the name of Clair Patterson , who took on what he call up would be the simple task of measuring the geezerhood of the Earth based on analysis of the radioactive decay of the elements find in meteorite . Meterorites are as honest-to-goodness as the Earth itself , and have remained unaffected by geological processes in all that time . Lead is the ultimate Cartesian product of radioactive decline , and so the historic period of a meteorite can be determined by liken the layer of lead to the level of more radioactive elements , like uranium , found in the sway .
The only problem was , back in 1966 , track was common in our environment . What should have been a fairly quick measure became a six - class seeking to get rid of lead contaminant from his science laboratory . When he finally did , Cosmos depicts Patterson thanking his own blood of begats : Charles Lyell , Michael Farraday , J.J. Thompson , Ernest Rutherford and Harrison Brown , all the giants upon whose shoulders he stood to check the unfeigned age of the Earth : four and a half billion years .
In the course of study of developing a clean-living research laboratory , Patterson became aware of the peril all that environmental lead set , eventually pushing a interior campaign to eradicate lead additive from gasolene and prohibition leash in US consumer project . The Ethyl Corporation pushed back , offering Patterson hush money to learn anything other than lead . fortuitously for our encephalon cells , Patterson refused and challenged the ego - appoint diligence lead expert whose conclusion that the Ethyl Corporation ’s key signature merchandise Tetraethyllead was harmless was based solely on their involuntariness to look for harm .
Some might accuse the church of being loth to accept scientific findings that contravene dogma , but they are rank amateurs when compare with full-grown business . The obvious comparison being made here is to modernistic climate change defense , which is based for the most part on the Argument From Negative Consequences . We do n’t need to solve the trouble , so there is no job . Can anyone seriously doubt that the same the great unwashed who claim the evidence for climate change is unreliable today would be tout it as cogent evidence of their good environmental citizenship if climate change were find to be beneficial tomorrow ?
Climate alteration is not the only instance we ’ve take care of this design of fitting the evidence to a predetermined , financially lucrative finis . From lead in our gasoline and children ’s toys , to the famous “ Seven Dwarves ” take the stand that they had no knowledge of any disconfirming wellness effects from smoking tobacco , to prognostications of doom for the spray can food linear and hairspray industries should we be so short as to banish CFCs , diligence has been more obstinate than any Christian church at spinning , concealing , distorting and cherry picking evidence to suit their bottom communication channel .
But there is always hope that the verity will shine through the layers of green goddess . As Tyson has enjoin , the enceinte matter about science is that it ’s honest whether you consider it or not . And the enceinte thing about candles in the dark is that they fall whether you open your eyes or not .
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