The K-T Letters/Collusion?

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Dear PaleoNet Colleagues:

	Larry Bowlds raised some good points in his 10/8/96 11:59 PM
posting. One asked for information on the Science magazine asteroid versus
volcano publication record. I provided that information via my letter to
Science editor, Daniel Koshland in my 10/10/96 posting.

 	For Larry's:

>>Dr. McLean certainly presents an interesting hypothesis. As I
>>understand it, the NSF, the journal Science, and a cadre of
>>scientists led by Luis Alvarez proposed that an impact resulted in
>>the extinction of the dinosaurs. These consirators then systematically
>>foiled all opposition in order to corner research funds and promote their
>>own notoriety for personal gain. Watergate pales in comparison.

when I first saw it, my first impression was that it would take a
dissertation to respond to it. So, in my 10/10/96 posting, I provided a
brief foundational response that I could build upon. Larry mentions the
NSF. That's a good a place discuss Larry's concept of "conspirators," which
takes us into the concept of collusion.

	Any reference I made to the NSF involved an article in Mosaic
magazine, which was published by the NSF, in its 1981, March/April issue.
It contained an article titled "The World's Great Dyings."

	That article contained a special blue-outlined box. It was titled
"Just So," and stated that the theories in it "rely on unlikely phenomena;
some of the proponents abide in lofty isolation." The proponents were
scientists who had created non-impact K-T extinction theories. My K-T
greenhouse-extinction work was in the blue box.

	So was my Pleistocene-Holocene mammalian extinction work that had
not yet been published. For that work, I had isolated a greenhouse
physiological killing mechanism. The U.S. Senate later had me present the
killing mechanism at a Senate Hearing on the same panel with Sherwood
Roland, who had originated the ozone problem, and later won the Nobel Prize
for his work. But in 1981, even before my work was published, it was being
ridiculed as "Just So" in the NSF's Mosaic magazine.

	I found out about the Mosaic article one morning in May 1981 when
copies appeared in every faculty mailbox in our geology department. Not one
of them had a mailing label. Someone--who knew that the article was going
to be published--had hand carried them into our geology department and
distributed them to our geology faculty.

	Examination of the article showed where the "Just So" originated.
The editor of Mosaic told me that he had made the blue box via influence of
a K-T paleobiologist. The editor wouldn't tell me where he found out about
my Pleistocene-Holocene extinction work.

	Beginning in 1981, shortly after I debated the Alvarez team at the
K-TEC II, a steady stream of damaging politics were carried into our
geology department. They undermined me, and caused my departmental chairman
to become upset with me. My K-T Deccan Traps-greenhouse work was "an
embarrassment" to the department.

	He was distressed because a Nobelist, Luis Alvarez, was having to
criticize me publicly because of my "bad" K-T research. And he was upset
because two of the world's most famous paleobiologists--who had vested
interests in the Alvarez asteroid--had convinced him, among other things,
that my work was "not going anywhere," and that I had spent my career
puttering around in a "little square mile."

	I could do nothing about the damage that was being done to me. In
1984, stresses of K-T politics caused my health to fail. After 1984, I
spent every month of my life in some physical pain. Beginning in 1984,
seeing my career being destroyed, and my health failing, depression
enveloped me. I was never able to recover completely physically or
emotionally. Vicious K-T politics cost me the best years of my career.

	Why would Luis Alvarez attempt to wreck my credibility and career?
Alvarez had big plans for his asteroid. In June 1980, the same month that
Science magazine published the Alvarez asteroid theory, NASA's Advisory
Council convened a "new directions" symposium at Woods Hole, Massachusetts
where it chose the asteroid to be the basis of an expensive Project
Spacewatch. Glory and vast monies provide motivation enough. Alvarez was no
stranger to using politics on people who stood in his way, as witness what
happened to Robert Oppenheimer.

	Alvarez claimed that the K-T boundary iridium was "proof" of K-T
impact. My work proposed the Deccan Traps volcanism as the source of the
iridium, undermining the very basis of the asteroid theory.

	As for the paleobiologists, they had their own grandiose career
plans based on the asteroid.

	Some details are in the attached "K-T Letter." I shortened it
considerably, and edited it to conceal the identity of all parties involved.

	For Larry's "Watergate pales in comparison," we never know how the
future might turn out. One thing is certain. The story of K-T pathogenic
science will be told.

	I thank Larry for inviting me to contribute this posting.

Cordially,
Dewey McLean
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November 27, 1992


Dear ***:

	Thanks for your 11/23/92 fax response to my 11/19/92 fax of the
Koshland letter which contains the following comments about you:

	"*** has a history of damaging opponents of the Alvarez asteroid.
Early in the K-T debate, his influence with the NSF's Mosaic editor got
Alvarez's opponents categorized as "Just So," and abiding in "lofty
isolation" (Mosaic, 1981, v. 12, pp. 2-10). That hurt. In addition, my work
on the greenhouse physiological killing mechanism was branded "Just So"
even before my paper was published. John Noble Wilford (The Riddle of the
Dinosaurs, 1985) also used ***'s "Just So." For those--and other actions--I
must view *** as a mean-spirited, politically-manipulative individual who
has no business being on any --- that must make decisions on the K-T."

	A few weeks ago, a journalist called about your comments on Chuck
Officer's role in the K-T debate: "Chuck Officer is reminiscent of Arthur
Meyerhoff and continental drift" . . . "Meyerhoff was somewhat of a
laughing stock of the field" . . . and that "lots of people draw parallels
between Meyerhoff and Officer."

	At the Cincinnati GSA meeting in late October, I talked with other
scientists about your comments. No one I talked to had such an insulting
opinion of Officer. ***, it seems that--via personal attack--you were
attempting to undermine Officer's scientific credibility with the
journalist. In the early 1980s, you seem to have done the same thing to
me--only worse.

	 In the early 1980s--when I had originated the volcano side of the
current asteroid versus volcano K-T debate, and was the main volcanic
opposition to the Alvarez asteroid--your politics, those of another famous
paleobiologist, and Luis Alvarez were fed to the Chairman of my Department
of Geological Sciences with disastrous consequences to my career, and my
health.

	David Wones was Chairman of our Department. He was the best boss I
had ever known. He was supportive of my K-T volcanism-extinctions work,
insisted that I attend the 1981 Snowbird I conference, and even paid my
way. Wones' 1/13/81 Faculty Activities Report to the Dean stated, "Dewey is
one of the creative and original thinkers in the department . . . If he is
correct in his analysis of fossil extinctions, the department will have
housed one of the major figures of our time." And, "Dewey has been most
cooperative with me." I adored David Wones.

	Then, your old pal, ###, was promoted to full professor, and got on
the Executive Committee. My relationship with Chairman Wones
deteriorated--quickly. By 1/12/83, K-T "dirty tricks" had so distressed
Wones with me that his Faculty Activities Report noted, "Dewey McLean
remains the least collegial of the faculty in the Geological Sciences."
Wones would get angry with me for reasons I could not fathom and, when he
saw me, might turn red-faced, and utter scathing remarks. Finally--I had
"no future here." And should "look elsewhere." Wones had "no time" to
discuss what was wrong. An article in the NSF's Mosaic (1981, v. 12), that
lumped my work in a special blue-outlined box titled "Just So," also
bothered him; he was very sensitive to the NSF.

	I was doing an excellent job here. I had received four Teaching
Excellence Awards (1974 to 1981), was directing a graduate dinoflagellate
program second only to my mentor at Stanford (two of my former graduate
students have been President of the American Association of Stratigraphic
Palynologists, and one received the 1984 Outstanding Graduate Student at
Florida State Award, etc.), was doing original research linking internal
earthly processes to evolution of earth's biosphere, and was developing a
physiological greenhouse killing mechanism, etc. (I have the Ph.D. in
geology from Stanford, and all course work for the Ph.D. in biology).
However, I was being hurt because of the K-T, and sometimes brutally so.

	Speaking of brutality--one day ### told me that the department
would solicit a recommendation about me from Luis Alvarez. ### knew that
Luis Alvarez had threatened to wreck my career if I opposed his asteroid
theory, and could be depended on to write a damaging letter about me. ###
also indicated that if I wanted to make full professor, I would have to
relocate--"like Tony Hallam had" (something about relocating from Oxford to
Birmingham). I had to take all this, and couldn't do anything about it.

	Wones was manipulated. One day, Wones even cursed me in front of
the secretarial staff for being such a "bad scientist" that a Nobel prize
winner (Luis Alvarez) had to chastise me publicly (I have a letter of
apology from Wones). ***, you, chairman of three NASA workshops on
extraterrestrial influences of bioevolution, etc., had brought ### and Luis
Alvarez together. ### brought Alvarez's comments about me into our
department. Wones' upset with me seems to have followed one of your
meetings.

	Stresses wreaked upon me by Wones' several-month harangue ground me
down. I learned all about drenching night sweats, endless anxiety, and
helplessness at being attacked, and not being able to do anything about it.
I was being damaged externally by Luis Alvarez's attack upon my
credibility, and internally by K-T politics in my own department. Finally,
I threatened to sue Wones and the University. Some details are in my 6/1/88
letter to Luis Alvarez (attached). Incidentally, paragraph two of my
Alvarez letter contains a comment that might interest you--the one that my
K-T work was "not going anywhere."

	***, according to Wones, you were the source of that "cheap shot"
that had helped to turn him against me.  He had to take "seriously, the
recommendation from one of the world's top paleontologists, a ---, who was
actively involved in the K-T debate." By that description, he had
unintentionally identified you. When confronted with a potential
lawsuit--and realizing that he had been manipulated--Wones admitted it.

	Stresses of the politics broke down my health. In January, 1984,
horrible pain woke me one morning. Nearly every joint in my body was
inflamed, and some were swollen. Movement triggered excruciating pain. My
fingers were swollen twice their normal size, and were stiff and immobile.
My wife had to help me get out of bed, and to dress. She had to do that
many mornings. The affliction got worse, and lasted for all of 1984. My
muscle mass atrophied. I spent 1985 so weak and fatigued that I could do
little more than meet my academic responsibilities. I had to face the
possibility that my career might be over for health reasons.

	The 1984-1985 episode of pain and emotional trauma embedded in me a
Pavlovian-type response to the K-T such that it became upsetting--even
repulsive--to me. Before 1984, I had never been bothered by stresses; after
that, I have been. I learned in a brutal way that politics could hurt me. I
will never recover physically or emotionally from the trauma that some of
you people put me through. You state in your fax that you had declined "to
write a letter at the time of your promotion at VPI." The method you used
was more effective--and left no documented record.

And on and on.

***********************************************************************
Dewey M. McLean                       Telephone: 540-552-8559
Department of Geological Sciences     E-mail address: dmclean@vt.edu
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
Blacksburg, VA  24061

Home Page:  http://www.vt.edu:10021/artsci/geology/mclean/
                   Dinosaur_Volcano_Extinction/index.html

Home Page:  http://www.vt.edu:10021/artsci/geology/mclean/
                   Creationism_vs_Evolution/index.html
***********************************************************************