LEADER 03314nam 22006374a 450 001 9910782563803321 005 20230721003753.0 010 $a1-281-75262-2 010 $a1-4356-8473-7 010 $a9786611752620 010 $a0-520-93344-3 024 7 $a10.1525/9780520933446 035 $a(CKB)1000000000576806 035 $a(EBL)358947 035 $a(OCoLC)476183682 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000208870 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11189683 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000208870 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10244009 035 $a(PQKB)10257827 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC358947 035 $a(DE-B1597)519716 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780520933446 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL358947 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10240765 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL175262 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000576806 100 $a20071113d2008 ub 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|n|---||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aNature's clocks$b[electronic resource] $ehow scientists measure the age of almost everything /$fDoug Macdougall 210 $aBerkeley $cUniversity of California Press$dc2008 215 $a1 online resource (285 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 $a0-520-24975-5 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 257-263) and index. 327 $aNo vestige of a beginning-- -- Mysterious rays -- Wild Bill's quest -- Changing perceptions -- Getting the lead out -- Dating the boundaries -- Clocking evolution -- Ghostly forests and Mediterranean volcanoes -- More and more from less and less. 330 $a"Radioactivity is like a clock that never needs adjusting," writes Doug Macdougall. "It would be hard to design a more reliable timekeeper." In Nature's Clocks, Macdougall tells how scientists who were seeking to understand the past arrived at the ingenious techniques they now use to determine the age of objects and organisms. By examining radiocarbon (C-14) dating-the best known of these methods-and several other techniques that geologists use to decode the distant past, Macdougall unwraps the last century's advances, explaining how they reveal the age of our fossil ancestors such as "Lucy," the timing of the dinosaurs' extinction, and the precise ages of tiny mineral grains that date from the beginning of the earth's history. In lively and accessible prose, he describes how the science of geochronology has developed and flourished. Relating these advances through the stories of the scientists themselves-James Hutton, William Smith, Arthur Holmes, Ernest Rutherford, Willard Libby, and Clair Patterson-Macdougall shows how they used ingenuity and inspiration to construct one of modern science's most significant accomplishments: a timescale for the earth's evolution and human prehistory. 606 $aGeochronometry 606 $aGeological time 606 $aRadioisotopes in geology 615 0$aGeochronometry. 615 0$aGeological time. 615 0$aRadioisotopes in geology. 676 $a551.7/01 700 $aMacdougall$b J. D.$f1944-$01159504 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910782563803321 996 $aNature's clocks$93727039 997 $aUNINA