Product Description

On 24 June 1837, Louis Agassiz stunned the learned members of the Swiss Society of Natural Sciences by addressing them, in his role as President, not with an anticipated lecture on fossil fishes, but with a passionate presentation on the existence of Ice Ages. No one was convinced. He even dragged the reluctant members of the Society up into the mountains to see the evidence for themselves, pointing out the scars on the hard rocks left by glaciation (which some of those present tried to explain away as having been produced by the wheels of passing carriages). Extraordinarily, it would take a further 140 years before the Ice Age theory was fully proved and understood. John and Mary Gribbin tell the remarkable story of how we came to understand the phenomenon of Ice Ages, focusing on the key personalities obsessed with the search for answers. How frequently do Ice Ages occur? How do astronomical rhythms affect the Earth's climate? Have there always been two polar ice caps? Is it true that tiny changes in the heat balance of the Earth could plunge us back into full Ice Age conditions? With startling new material on how the last major Ice Epoch could have hastened human evolution, "Ice Age" explains why the Earth was once covered in ice - and how that made us human.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #673251 in Books
• Published on: 2001-12-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 112 pages

About the Author
John Gribbin is the acclaimed author of many popular science books in Penguin, including The Little Book of Science (1999) and The First Chimpanzee (2001). He is passionately interested in climate change. Mary Gribbin is best known as a writer of science books for young readers. Together the Gribbins have written several science books, including Richard Feynman: A Life in Science (Penguin, 1998).

Customer Reviews

A brief history of ice ages
The information set out in this book is quite densely packed, even though the authors found space for some of the scientists' personal histories - those that added something relevant and interesting. It gets off to an excellent start by telling us that we're living in an ice age and the world has rarely been as cold as it is today. We're given a brief history of the what scientists knew (or thought they knew) about ice ages in the past, starting in the early 19th century, and what they know now - and why they *know* they know it and don't just think they know it. The scientific methods used are very neat and no doubt, very much more complicated than you would guess by reading the book, but they're explained in such a way that I felt I'd had no difficulty understanding as much as I needed to grasp the basics of how it all worked.

This is how it's organised:

Prologue: The Ice Age Now
Three chapters:
~ The Victorians' Ice Age
~ The Serbian's Ice Age
~ Deep Proof

Epilogue: Ice Ages and Us
Reference sources

There are documentaries about climate and climate change on the telly fairly frequently (most days if you watch the 'Discovery' programmes) and there are often items on the news programmes about changing weather patterns and the weather presenters regularly have some snippet to impart about how we're having more than the usual amount of rain or sun or high winds when you wouldn't normally expect them. Then there are all the weather and climate stories in the magazines and newspaper. So I sometimes get confused. There are so many indicators and some of them seem contradictory, like a bunch of ragged threads that you can't tie together properly. The planet seems to be warming up but some people say it isn't. Plenty of scientists say it certainly is and what's more, we, the humans are causing it. I'm so pleased that I bought this small, clearly written book. It's taken away the confusion and replaced it with a nice, tidy, coherent idea of how climate works. One thing I did understand before reading the book: climate and weather are very very complicated - so making it seem comprehensible to a non-technically-minded person like me, is no mean trick. Just 101 pages, written in plain English and I feel I have a much better understanding than I had only a few hours ago.

I recommend this book to anyone who would like a straight forward, not-too-technical account of how and why our climate changes.

A brief history of ice ages
There are documentaries about climate and climate change on the telly fairly frequently (every day if you watch the 'Discovery' programmes) and there are often items on the news programmes about changing weather patterns and the weather presenters regularly have some snippet to impart about how we're having more than the usual amount of rain or sun or high winds when you wouldn't normally expect them. Then there are all the weather and climate stories in the magazines and newspaper. So I sometimes get confused. There are so many indicators and some of them seem contradictory, like a bunch of ragged threads that you can't tie together properly. The planet seems to be warming up but some people say it isn't. Plenty of scientists say it certainly is and what's more, we, the humans are causing it. I'm so pleased that I bought this small, clearly written book. It's taken away the confusion and replaced it with a nice, tidy, coherent idea of how climate works. One thing I did understand before reading the book: climate and weather are very very complicated - so making it seem comprehensible to a non-technically-minded person like me, is no mean trick. Just 101 pages, written in plain English and I feel I have a much better understanding than I had only a few hours ago.

The book is divided into 6 parts:

Prologue: The Ice Age Now
Three chapters:
~ The Victorians' Ice Age
~ The Serbian's Ice Age
~ Deep Proof
Epilogue: Ice Ages and Us
Sources

The information is quite densely packed, even though the authors found space for some of the scientists' personal histories - those that added something relevant and interesting. It gets off to an excellent start by telling us that we're living in an ice age and the world has rarely been as cold as it is today. We're given a brief history of the what scientists knew (or thought they knew) about ice ages in the past, starting in the early 19th century, and what they know now - and why they *know* they know it and don't just think they know it. The scientific methods used are very neat and no doubt, very much more complicated than you would guess by reading the book, but they're explained in such a way that I felt I'd had no difficulty understanding as much as I needed to grasp the basics of how it all worked.

I recommend this book to anyone who would like a nice, straight forward, not-too-technical account of how and why our climate changes.

A concise summary of nearly 200 years of ice age research
John and Mary Gribben have succeeded in creating an easily read history of the research into the cause of ice ages. Covering nearly 200 years of research in 101 pages with a style that made you want to see what happened next. Everything you could want to know is there with the added attraction of a snapshot of the researchers lives as well as their discoveries.