Where Wonders Await Us - The New York Review of Books

The following is an interesting piece which illustrates an important point about scientific thinking. Our knowledge and prediction is limited by our experience. Assertions or predictions about the world around us and our history on the planet are based on what we have observed. Who knows what unfound human remains might tell us about early life?

If next year a buried city was unearthed in Mongolia dating from 5000 years ago, what might it tell us about human existence and how would that serendipitous discovery change our theories about the origin of human life?

Here is report about books offering an example of exploration for the first time into a vast region. It is impossible to tell how this might change the way we think about the planet.

Where Wonders Await Us - The New York Review of Books:

New York Review of Books, Volume 54, Number 20 · December 20, 2007
Where Wonders Await Us

By Tim Flannery
The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
by Claire Nouvian
University of Chicago Press, 256 pp., $45.00

The Silent Deep: The Discovery, Ecology and Conservation of the Deep Sea
by Tony Koslow
University of Chicago Press, 270 pp., $35.00