Thanks to scientists and citizens

T. rex and the Crater of Doom comes with warm thanks to three groups of people: First to my scientific colleagues on all sides of the extinction debate, all over the world, who have made this the most exciting intellectual adventure I can imagine. Then to the citizens of the State of California, who employ me at their splendid university to teach geology to their sons and daughters. And finally to the people of my country, who support the American research enterprise with their taxes, through agencies like the National Science Foundation and NASA. I hope they take pleasure from this story of discovery.

Walter Alvarez, T. rex and the Crater of Doom (Princeton, NJ: 2008) (first pub. 1997), p. xxii