Overview

A gripping tale of exploration, the pursuit of ice-age records, scientific invention and controversy, and revelations about the great Amazon forest In this vivid memoir of a life in science, ecologist Paul Colinvaux takes his readers from the Alaskan tundra to steamy Amazon jungles, from the Galapagos Islands (before tourists had arrived) to the high Andes and the Darien Gap in Panama. He recounts an adventurous tale of exploration in the days before GPS and satellite mapping, and a tale no less exhilarating of his battle to disprove a hypothesis endorsed by most of the scientific community. Colinvaux’s grand endeavor, begun in the 1960s, was to find fossil evidence of the ice-age climate and vegetation of the entire American equator, from Pacific to Atlantic. The accomplishment of the task by the author and his colleagues involved finding unknown ancient lakes, lugging drilling equipment through uncharted Amazon jungle, operating hand drills from rubber boats in water 40 meters deep, and inventing a pollen analysis for a land with 80,000 species of plants. Colinvaux’s years of arduous travel and research ultimately disproved a hotly defended hypothesis explaining bird distribution peculiarities in the Amazon forest. The story of how he arrived at a new understanding of the Amazon is at once an adventurous saga, an account of science as it is conducted in the field, and a cautionary tale about the temptation to treat a  favored hypothesis with a reverence that subverts unbiased research.

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Reviews

Amazon Expeditions is a tour-de-force, presenting the development of an interpretation of major importance for both theory and conservation. I find the evidence compelling. --Emily Southgate, Rutgers University--Emily Southgate

The story is part picaresque and part polemic, at once a tale of adventure and a firsthand account of the deconstruction of a 'beautiful' theory. . . .Colvinaux has given us a most entertaining behind-the-scenes account of his challenging quest and worthy accomplishments. -- Paul Barker American Scientist (11/01/2008)

Author Information

Paul Colinvaux is senior research scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, and professor emeritus, The Ohio State University. He has published extensively on ecological topics and hosted the twenty-part PBS series, What Ecology Really Says. He lives in Woods Hole, MA.

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