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Unravelling the greatest cataclysmic event on Earth is no minor feat. In Dinosaurs, Diamonds, And Things From Outer Space (Stanford University Press, £30 hbk, £11.95 pbk, ISBN 8047 2392 3), David Brez Carlisle successfully presents various debatable hypotheses, and even throws in his own, to explain the mass extinction of 65 million years ago, ending the Mesozoic Era. Included in Carlisle’s articulate theory of the impact event are steam-driven comets, diamonds and acid rain. Thankfully, with such a complex event, he resists jargon and provides refreshing pockets of anecdotes throughout.