"Jeff Hecht - Extinction Theory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hecht Jeff)

======================
Extinction Theory
by Jeff Hecht
======================

Copyright (c)1989 by Jeff Hecht
First published in Analog, March 1989

Fictionwise
www.Fictionwise.com

Science Fiction


---------------------------------
NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the original
purchaser. Duplication or distribution of this work by email, floppy disk,
network, paper print out, or any other method is a violation of international
copyright law and subjects the violator to severe fines and/or imprisonment.
---------------------------------


It was all Wasserman's fault. He got me into this; he and his rock
samples. I'm a physicist, with some tricks up my sleeve for counting metal
atoms. Ask me about single-atom laser photo ionization spectroscopy and I can
tell you how to get isotopic concentrations and ratios to three significant
figures. Ask me about rocks, and I can tell you how to turn them into samples
for my handy-dandy laser photo ionization spectrometer. Beyond that, all I
know is that most of them are grey and have names I never bothered to learn.
I asked Wasserman about rocks. He turned his bleary red eyes to me and
picked up one. "This is the boundary clay," he said. "It was laid down at the
very end of the Cretaceous, about the time the dinosaurs died out. On top of
it are Tertiary sediments. This is a nice little sample," he added, holding up
a chunk of rock that looked to me just like any other rock. "I don't know the
exact sedimentation rate, but I'd guess that in this two-centimeter thickness
we've got the record of a few thousand years." He was in a particularly morose
mood, so he added, "Same as from the pyramids to the space age. That's what
will be left of us in 65 million years."
Wasserman had been drinking again. He said he drank so much to try to
wash away the dust from his field work. He always put down two or three beers
when we went out to lunch. I could see the fine edge leave his thinking after
the second beer, never to come back until the next morning. I tried to talk
with him a couple of times about it, mentioning it gently, but he just snarled
that what he drank was his business. I suppose it was, but those of us who
have lived with alcoholics always can see the danger signs.
Despite that, I put up with him. His research grant had paid for a new
dye laser, and some very fancy single-frequency optics that could resolve
isotopic splittings in the megahertz range. Besides, he didn't show up much.
The rocks usually came in from the field, in special sealed cases so they
didn't pick up any contamination. That was necessary because he had us looking