Product Description

The quest to pinpoint the age of the Earth is nearly as old as humanity itself. For most of history, people trusted mythology or religion to provide the answer, even though nature abounds with clues to the past of the Earth and the stars. In "A Natural History of Time", geophysicist Pascal Richet tells the fascinating story of how scientists and philosophers examined those clues and from them built a chronological scale that has made it possible to reconstruct the history of nature itself. Richet begins his story with mythological traditions, which were heavily influenced by the seasons and almost uniformly viewed time cyclically. The linear history promulgated by Judaism, with its story of creation, was an exception, and it was that tradition that drove early Christian attempts to date the Earth. For instance, in 169 CE, the bishop of Antioch declared that the world had been in existence for "5,698 years and the odd months and days." Until the mid-eighteenth century, such natural timescales derived from biblical chronologies prevailed, but with the Scientific Revolution, geological and astronomical evidence for much longer timescales began to accumulate. Fossils and the developing science of geology provided compelling evidence for periods of millions and millions of years - a scale that even scientists had difficulty grasping. By the end of the twentieth century, new tools such as radiometric dating had demonstrated that the solar system is 4.5 billion years old, and the universe itself about twice that, though controversial questions remain. The quest for time is a story of ingenuity and determination, and like a geologist, Pascal Richet carefully peels back the strata of that history, giving us a chance to marvel at each layer and truly appreciate how far our knowledge - and our planet - have come.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #472099 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

Review
"Pascal Richet's is the best short account of the long history of changing ideas about the age of the earth (and indirectly of the universe), all the way from Jewish and classical antiquity to the twentieth century, from Genesis and Aristotle to Holmes and Patterson. Its narrative is refreshingly international in scope, and it avoids distorting the story into one of perennial conflict between Science and Religion. Richet's book is scholarly, and yet accessible to readers who know little about either geology or its history." - Martin J. S. Rudwick, author of Bursting the Limits of Time"

About the Author
Pascal Richet is professor of geophysics at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. He is the author of, among other books, The Physical Basis of Thermodynamics. John Venerella is the translator of A Naturalist's Guide to the Tropics, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Customer Reviews

Stretching the clock
These days nearly anybody can cite the idea of relativity with the Einsteinian comparison of our perception of time if we're sitting on a hot stove or next to a pretty girl. It took many centuries and controversies before a realistic view of time was developed. The theories and research, as Richet presents it, were long confined to the Mediterranean and European nations. He simply passes over time-keepers in Asia or the Western Hemisphere to launch his discussion with the Book of Genesis. From there he takes us on an encyclopaedic tour of Western European science and how its findings led to a more precise determination of the age of our planet. The original title [in French], was "The Age of the Earth: Toward the Discovery of the Immensity of Time." A far more accurate label for this work.

Considerations of time began as philosophical questions. The obvious passage of time, days, "moonths" and seasons were practical matters, but were clearly cyclical. Even advanced cultures, such as Pharaonic Egypt, restarted the calendar with each new ruler. Linear time, Richet notes, was a significant break with past thinking about time. Significantly, the concept postulated an identifiable beginning - first of time, then of the Earth itself. From what he calls the "Mosaic Chronology", the new idea became the focus of a search for the age of our planet. But a novel concept didn't provide new ways of measuring time for many centuries.

One teasing bit of evidence, known even by the ancients, were fossils. Seashells found in rocks high in mountains were an enigma. It was a long time before they were accepted as something once organic instead of simply anomalous stones. The very means of forming rocks was debated. Volcanoes were a manifest means, but later, the possibility of river or shoreline sediments hardening was debated. It was clear that layered rocks were likely former silt, but how long did the process take, and why were some strata folded over? One French diplomat in Egypt studied erosion and sediment and proposed the Earth was over two billion years old! Contrasted with the Biblical assumption that declared the planet to be only a few thousand years in age, this declaration was quickly dismissed by scholars. Later, as physics and chemistry improved as disciplines, did a new age in the millions become more readily accepted.

In this debate, Richert singles out a Victorian Englishman as the pivotal figure. William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, emerged as the "voice of authority" in dating the Earth. In one of his more famous pronouncements he dismissed Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection with an assessment of the sun's age at no more than 10 million years. Although new calculations brought some revision, Kelvin sustained his viewpoint for decades. Physics, however, was on the verge of new discoveries. Richert recounts the discovery of radioactivity and the elements that produce it. The idea that a rock might "decay" astounded scientists and the public alike. Further work demonstrated that the sun used a different process to generate heat - it wasn't just a cooling gas ball. Links were made with radioactive rocks in the Earth's crust and what was transpiring in the centre. Suddenly, the age of the planet increased many-fold. In 1965, a researcher still rarely noted, Claire Patterson, was able to date the Earth at over 4.5 billion years in age. In a glaring omission, Richert fails to note that this date was later confirmed by rocks returned from the Moon.

There are other omissions Richert might have included. Alfred Wegener's insight leading to a theory of continental drift, while not providing a dating scheme, demonstrated a process requiring many aeons to achieve. The Earth's magnetic field, which unaccountably flips the North and South magnetic poles, contributed to the concept of an ancient Earth. Perhaps these may be considered small lapses in such a detailed study. In supporting his epic, Richert uses the page reference for footnoting, but adds suggestions for further reading at the end. He also adds an interesting innovation in listing works about the major figures in his account. More authors should take note of this technique. Although Richert's prose is a bit dense, the wealth of information in this book brings the reader many rewards. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Time is of the essence!
This book is factual, comprehensive and I think the front cover is fantastic; imagine the time required for wind to carve out a yardang rock formation!

However, it took 200 pages of examining mankinds old (sometimes amusing)misconceptions before vaguely modern ideas even got mentioned. If you particularly enjoy reading history of science you will find this part more interesting than me.

But if you want to have a concise, inspiring account of how the age of the earth became precisely measured, then you should buy 'The Dating Game', by geologist Cherry Lewis - a fantastic book which doesn't take aeons to read.