Ehrlich has nine theories that could currently be classified as crazy ideas. The dinosaur extinction example in Chapter Six has been used in previous homework and was used in the last section to illustrate the writing assignments in this section. Another three of these nine theories will be used in various assignments.
- Oil, Coal, and Gas have Abiogenic Origins
- There Was No Big Bang
- Sun Exposure is Beneficial
Here are some books and articles that suggest competing theories, some of which could also be considered "crazy":
- Washington Post, "Scientists inch closer to learning origins of mysterious ‘fairy circles’", 13 January 2023
- New York Times, "In Hunt to Solve ‘Fairy Circle’ Mystery, One Suspect Is Dismissed", 1 November 2022
- Science News, "What fairy circles teach us about science", 20 August 2015
- New York Times, "The Rebel Physicist Trying to Fix Quantum Mechanics", 25 June 2020
- Book (Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Published on Nov 13, 2018; Pages 144; ISBN: 9780393249309), "End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals" by Ross D E MacPhee, 13 November 2018
- Washington Post, "The classic explanation for the Black Death plague is wrong, scientists say", 16 January 2018
- Washington Post, "Mystery solved: How flamingos can sleep while standing on one leg", 24 May 2017
- Science News, "Ancient DNA bucks tale of how the horse was tamed", 27 April 2017
- The New Youk Times, "Where Did Dogs Come From? There May Be Two Answers.", 2 June 2016
- Science News, "Special Report: Dimensions of Time", 15 July 2015
- Science News, "Environmental change may spur growth of ‘rock snot’", 21 May 2014
- Science News, "Unsolved Drugs", 18 April 2014
- Nature, "The function of zebra stripes", 1 April 2014
- Science News, "Maybe time’s arrow needs ergodicity as well as entropy", 1 April 2014
- Slate, "The Curious Case of Polywater", 7 November 2013
- New York Times, "Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week?", 24 June 2009
- Scientific American, "Infinite Earths in Parallel Universes Really Exist", May 2003
- Scientific American, "Dinosaurs Had Feathers", March 2003
- Discover, "Was Einstein Wrong About the Speed of Light?", April 2003
- Discover, "Can You See With Your Tongue?", June 2003