Overview

""In Search of Lost Time"" details mankind's quest, throughout the ages, to measure and understand time itself. The book is a reflection of Derek York's obsession with time and its measurement. It takes the reader from the pyramids of Egypt, through Stonehenge and the South China Plain, to the universities of Cambridge, McGill and Chicago, to the Patent Office in Berne, and back to the Ethiopian desert on the banks of the Awash River. On this time-odyssey the reader enters the mind-bending universe of the Special and General Theories of Relativity, the ghostly world of Quantum Mechanics and the unpredictable haunts of Chaos. Companions to share and illuminate the path range from Jonathan Swift's ""Gulliver's Travels"" and Lewis Carroll's ""Alice"" to J.B. Priestley's ""Dangerous Corner"". The reader will meet the father of master-spy Kim Philby in the Empty Quarter of Arabia, the fantasist Velikovsky in the clouds, and Newton, Darwin, Rutherford, Einstein and the great earth scientists of this century who fathomed the depths of lost time and discovered the age of the earth. Written in an engaging, non-technical style for the lay-reader this book should delight and amaze all who encounter it.

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9780750304757

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Reviews

""This is a delightful little book."" - Nature ""The trouble with time is that there is so much of it. Since writers woke up to this fact, book after book has appeared with histories of its past and histrionics about its future. So how to tell the wheat from the chaff? Try asking whether the work adds to our understanding of the meaning, measurement, or consequence of time? Derek York's In Search of Lost Time passes this test. It contains a kernel of novel material about how we learned to determine the ages of the oldest things on Earth - rocks, artifacts, and fossils - as well as how we became comfortable with a world that was not thousands but billions of years old. This is not to be found in other books on time."" - New Scientist ""This is a very enjoyable set of essays. The book is written in language that makes it accessible to the non-scientific and general reader and is well recommended."" - Aslib Book Guide ""The author's fascination … with time is obvious throughout this excellent book … thoroughly readable, highly entertaining, and totally accessible to anyone from the interested GCSE student upward …"" - Schools Science Review ""…a prodigy of divulgation and entertainment … . No doubt, it will open our eyes."" - The Science Book Board ""…he makes several difficult topics readily understandable … . A worthwhile book for anyone with some background in science looking for entertainment or enlightenment."" - Choice

This is a delightful little book. Nature The trouble with time is that there is so much of it. Since writers woke up to this fact, book after book has appeared with histories of its past and histrionics about its future. So how to tell the wheat from the chaff? Try asking whether the work adds to our understanding of the meaning, measurement, or consequence of time? Derek York's In Search of Lost Time passes this test. It contains a kernel of novel material about how we learnt to determine the ages of the oldest things on Earth - rocks, artefacts and fossils - as well as how we became comfortable with a world that was not thousands but billions of years old. This is not to be found in other books on time. New Scientist This is a very enjoyable set of essays. The book is written in language which makes it accessible to the non-scientific and general reader and is well recommended. Aslib Book Guide The author's fascination ... with time is obvious throughout this excellent book ... thoroughly readable, highly entertaining and totally accessible to anyone from the interested GCSE student upwards ... Schools Science Review ... a prodigy of divulgation and entertainment ... No doubt, it will open our eyes. The Science Book Board ... he makes several difficult topics readily understandable ... A worthwhile book for anyone with some background in science looking for entertainment or enlightenment. Choice

Author Information

York, D

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