Cuckoo

I finished reading the "abiogenic oil" chapter from the book Nine Crazy Ideas in Science by Prof. Robert Erhlich of George Mason U. I have no idea the popularity the book had when first published in 1991, but it does stand as a curious testament to popular science writings, whereby any dry, factual investigation gets in the way of selling books.

Erhlich does take a few potshots at Thomas Gold and his abiogenic theories but overall gives him a pass. What kind of a grade Gold in fact gets, we can judge in comparison to the other crazy ideas that Erhlich covers. He has a rating system by giving a "cuckoo" rating to each the nine crazee ideas, with the first three getting 0 cuckoos :

• could be true, why not? -- Oil, coal, and gas have abiogenic origins
• could be true, why not? -- Sun exposure is beneficial
• could be true, why not? -- Faster-than-light particles exist
• probably not true, but who knows? -- Low doses of nuclear radiation are
  beneficial
• very likely not true -- Time travel is possible
• very likely not true -- The solar system has two suns
• almost certainly false -- More guns means less crime
• almost certainly false -- AIDS is not caused by HIV
• almost certainly false -- There was no Big Bang

As I recall, health and science classes in elementary schools used to teach the relationship behind Vitamin D and sun exposure (and probably still do). Strange insight indeed to put the well-understood Vitamin D uptake on the same level as abiogenic oil.