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| The Other Side of the Medal A Paleobiologist Reflects on the Art and Serendipity of Science by Everett C. Olson 1990, 6x9", 182 pages |
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The Other Side of the Medal is a personal account of the human side of the late Everett C. Olson's distinguished career as a paleobiologist. Origins and the combination of events that led to a formal education at the University of Chicago, the selection of a career, and an interest in the Permian are reviewed. Then Olson vividly described two decades of field work in Texas, emphasizing the people, places and events that he and his co-workers encountered there at mid-century. The second half of the book is devoted to Olson's pioneering efforts in establishing and strengthening ties between paleontologists of the US and USSR during the Cold War years and especially his deepening friendship with Professor Ivan A. Efremov. Olson and Efremov, two scientists from different cultures, wrestled with opposing philosophies but shared common interests and emotions.
This book will certainly be of interest to the many people who have known Dr. Olson as colleague, mentor, and friend. For the general reader, the book provides insights into the career of a distinguished contemporary scientist and represents an important chapter in the 20th century history of paleontology, earth science, and international scientific relations.
ABOUT THE AUTHOREverett C. Olson had a long and distinguished career as a vertebrate paleontologist.
"Ole" received his formal higher education at the University of Chicago. Upon completing his doctorate in 1935, he joined the faculty of the Department of Geology at his alma mater. In 1969, he left Chicago to join the Department of Biology at UCLA, where he taught until his retirement in 1977. He passed away in 1993. Olson’s research has focused on the evolution of lower vertebrates from the Permocarboniferous; the origin of mammals; and the taphonomy, biogeography, and evolution of fossil communities. From this research have come 170 scientific papers and six books in the field of paleontology. In recognition of his scientific accomplishments and service to his discipline, Ole has received the Paleontological Medal of the Paleontological Society and the Distinguished Service Medal of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
REVIEWS"Olson’s career adroitly charts the erratic and hazardous course of paleobiology in the late 20th Century. When Olson entered the profession in 1935, Ph.D. in hand, he stepped into what he calls the 'age of innocence.' The 'old Guard' had a grip on paleontology and its sister disciplines – geology and evolutionary biology. Traditional views seemed stronger than ever; the earth’s continents were quite content to stay put, and the fabric of Darwin’s theory of evolution had nary a thread hanging. Some decades later, that age collided with a revolution in earth and biological sciences that gave us a new world of moving crustal plates and unexpected patterns of evolutionary change.
"Olson’s investigations not only survived this turmoil, they thrived on it. Most importantly, many of the problems Olson struggled with in his earlier years foreshadowed the issues that emerged in the 1960s.
"Great science aside, this casually delivered book brings its own distinctive pleasures. An extended section deals with Olson’s experiences collecting Permian fossils in the parched and windy plains of north-central Texas. Passages here are lyrical, amusing and earthy. Olson’s comrades, the hard drinking, profane Ernst, and genial Ab, and the "taciturn cowboy" Wade, among others, are characters as real as the rocks in your boots. Olson’s recollections break with pompous and overly romanticized exposes that are typical of such chronicles, and, in doing so, give a sharp-edged image of the life of a field paleontologist.
"The final chapters of the book offer another surprise. Instead of building on reminiscences of his own achievements, Olson brings to us the fascinating life and thoughts of his close friend and colleague, Ivan A. Efremov, an influential paleontologist of the Soviet Union. Efremov, an expert like Olson on Permian reptiles, a philosopher with interest in dialectical materialism as well as evolutionary theory, and a brilliant writer of fiction (especially science fiction), is somewhat of an enigma to western scientists. Olson is our cherished link with Efremov and the intellectual community of the Soviet Union at the height of the cold war. The record of correspondence reproduced here, like the letters of Turgenev and Flaubert, reveals the intellectual ferment that is spawned by this friendship of two extraordinary people." (Michael Novacek, The Quarterly Review of Biology, September 1991)