The Dating Game : One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth

The Dating Game : One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth

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  • 製本 Hardcover:ハードカバー版/ページ数 253 p.
  • 言語 ENG
  • 商品コード 9780521790512
  • DDC分類 551.701

基本説明

New in paperback. Hardcover was published in 2000.

Full Description


How old is the Earth? At the end of the nineteenth century, geologists, biologists, physicists and astronomers were all looking for a clock that would provide an answer to this, the greatest Time question of all. The Dating Game tells the story of one man's vision of developing a geological timescale that would finally lead to an accurate date for the Age of the Earth. Despite scientific opposition, financial hardship and personal tragedy, Arthur Holmes, greatest geologist of the twentieth century, fought for fifty years to convince the establishment of an Earth of great antiquity: a fight which eventually transformed the moribund 'art' of geology into a dynamic science. Cherry Lewis' engaging writing brings Holmes back to life and skilfully weaves his adventures, loves and losses, around the early history and science of dating the Earth, and the discovery of radioactivity - the clock that tells geological time.

Contents

1. Prelude to the game; 2. A brief history of time; 3. Darwin's sorest trouble; 4. Mysterious rays; 5. Doomsday postponed; 6. Holidays in Mozambique; 7. This vegetable prison; 8. A brimful of promise; 9. Liquid gold in Yenangyaung; 10. Durham days; 11. The Ardnamurchan affair; 12. Rewards and retributions; 13. Why does the sun shine?; 14. The age of uranium; 15. The age of the earth; 16. Loose ends; Thanks and acknowledgements; Selected bibliography.