Overview
"""Radioactivity is like a clock that never needs adjusting,"" writes Doug Macdougall. ""It would be hard to design a more reliable timekeeper."" In Nature's Clocks, Macdougall tells how scientists who were seeking to understand the past arrived at the ingenious techniques they now use to determine the age of objects and organisms. By examining radiocarbon (C-14) dating-the best known of these methods-and several other techniques that geologists use to decode the distant past, Macdougall unwraps the last century's advances, explaining how they reveal the age of our fossil ancestors such as ""Lucy,"" the timing of the dinosaurs' extinction, and the precise ages of tiny mineral grains that date from the beginning of the earth's history. In lively and accessible prose, he describes how the science of geochronology has developed and flourished. Relating these advances through the stories of the scientists themselves-James Hutton, William Smith, Arthur Holmes, Ernest Rutherford, Willard Libby, and Clair Patterson-Macdougall shows how they used ingenuity and inspiration to construct one of modern science's most significant accomplishments: a timescale for the earth's evolution and human prehistory."
Full Product Details
Author: Doug Macdougall
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.80cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.363kg
ISBN: 9780520261617
ISBN 10: 0520261615
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 20 October 2009
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
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Reviews
Rich in historical tidbits. New Scientist 20080712 A helpful handbook on how we are now able to travel to the distant past. Publishers Weekly 20080407 The heart of the book reveals ingenious science. Library Journal 20080623 For time-conscious readers, Nature's Clocks provides satisfaction beyond measure. Washington Post Book World 20080907 Guaranteed to improve one's understanding. Natl Cntr For Science Education 20120807
A helpful handbook on how we are now able to travel to the distant past. --Publishers Weekly The heart of the book reveals ingenious science. --Library Journal For time-conscious readers, Nature's Clocks provides satisfaction beyond measure. --Washington Post Book World
Author Information
Doug Macdougall is Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, and currently resides in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is the author of Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages (UC Press, 2004) and A Short History of Planet Earth.
