The Age of Everything: How Science Explores the Past

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That is the subject of this quite fascinating book, a collection of detective techniques that begins with the deciphering of Mayan hieroglyphs and the reconstruction of their extraordinary calendar, like a huge system of gears; and ends by tracing the universe back to its own birth. As told by Hedman, an astronomer, each story is a marvel of compressed exegesis that takes into account some of the most modern and intriguing hypotheses The book is dense with fact but beautifully lucid.

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Natural History Paleobiology, Geology, and Paleontology. You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, see our international sales information. University of Chicago Press: About Contact News Giving to the Press. Selective Remembrances Philip L. Taking advantage of recent advances throughout the sciences, Matthew Hedman brings the distant past closer to us than it has ever been.

The Age of Everything

Here, he shows how scientists have determined the age of everything from the colonization of the New World over 13, years ago to the origin of the universe nearly fourteen billion years ago. Hedman details, for example, how interdisciplinary studies of the Great Pyramids of Egypt can determine exactly when and how these incredible structures were built.

He shows how the remains of humble trees can illuminate how the surface of the sun has changed over the past ten millennia. And he also explores how the origins of the earth, solar system, and universe are being discerned with help from rocks that fall from the sky, the light from distant stars, and even the static seen on television sets. Covering a wide range of time scales, from the Big Bang to human history, The Age of Everything is a provocative and far-ranging look at how science has determined the age of everything from modern mammals to the oldest stars, and will be indispensable for all armchair time travelers.

The Age of Everything: How Science Explores the Past

That is the subject of this quite fascinating book. As told by Hedman, an astronomer, each story is a marvel of compressed exegesis that takes into account some of the most modern and intriguing hypotheses. Parameterizing the Age of the Universe.

Interesting topic that shows what it takes to estimate the age of things. Well written book that is accessible for all the science lovers in all of us. It takes some very complex topics and reduces it to a layman level of understanding and that is an accomplishment.

The Age of Everything: How Science Explores the Past, Hedman

I'm in awe of human ingenuity! The book provides many examples of how converging sciences are used to come up with the most accurate age estimate possible. You will end up with a much better understanding of how the decay of rate of known elements such as carbon is used to determine the age of things. Furthermore, you will understand how that decay rate was validated by other scientific means.

Quantum mechanics explained so that even I can understand, sort of. Want to know what Einstein considered his biggest failure as a scientist? You will find out in this book. Many examples of interesting arguments within the scientific community, such as the arrival of the first people to the New World.

Plenty of illustrations and diagrams throughout the book.

My favorite chapter is how scientists determined the age of hominid bipedalism, love how converging sciences help to narrow the window of time. Each chapter ends with further reading material, excellent! I'll never look at a star the same way ever again.

I finally understand general relativity, Einstein would be proud The author does a wonderful job of not "sugarcoating" the difficulties in estimating the age of things. A lot of great scientific information in less than the pages.

A smooth, quick read. If you don't like science by all means stay away from this book. The Age of Everything can be dry at times.

Some topics are still difficult to comprehend, not a fault of the author, but the nature of some of the topics. In summary, The Age of Everything by Matthew Hedman was an excellent book that filled my curiosity of knowing how we determine the age of things. The book is full of illustrations to assist the reader with concepts, it also has a lot of great reference material for those interested in further reading. It's the kind of book that makes you proud to love science and be in awe of human ingenuity.

How Science Explores the Past

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