Nature's Clocks: How Scientists Measure the Age of Almost

Nature's Clocks: How Scientists Measure the Age of Almost Everything

"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) datingâ€”the best known of these methodsâ€”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 themselvesâ€”James Hutton, William Smith, Arthur Holmes, Ernest Rutherford, Willard Libby, and Clair Pattersonâ€”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.
Country USA
Manufacturer University of California Press
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2008-06-30
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	University of California Press
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2008-06-30
Format	Kindle eBook

Nature's Clocks: How Scientists Measure the Age of Almost Everything