Luis Alvarez (C/N)

Walter and Luis AlvarezLuis Alvarez (June 13, 1911 – September 1, 1988) was an American physicist and inventor. He spent the majority of his career at Berkeley, and in 1968 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for his decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possible through his development of the technique of using hydrogen bubble chamber and data analysis”.

He remains a prominent figure in scientific history, not only for his achievements in physics, but also for his hypothesis on the extinction of the dinosaurs. The Alvarez hypothesis is among the most widely accepted explanation for the Cretaceous extinction, stating that a large asteroid struck the Yucatan peninsula. Evidence supporting this is a layer found, throughout the world, of Iridium: a mineral found scarcely on earth, but abundant in asteroids.

Mr. Crichton briefly mentions Alvarez before introducing the reader to Ian Malcolm, in The Lost World.