The Dating Game

Cherry Lewis

258 pages, parution le 27/03/2002

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Résumé

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.

Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	Cambridge University Press
Auteur(s)	Cherry Lewis
Parution	27/03/2002
Nb. de pages	258
Format	14 x 21,5
Couverture	Broché
Poids	421g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780521893121
ISBN13	978-0-521-89312-1