Aeons: The Search for the Beginning of Time

by Martin Gorst

The story of man's attempt to discover the moment that time began, from James Ussher's confident assertion in 1650 that the world was 5654 years old to the Hubble Space telescope's images of a world 13 billion years old, with a starry cast of eccentrics, mystics, scientists and visonaries. The moment of the beginning of time is one of science's Holy Grails, pursued by devotees and obsessives across the ages. Few were more committed than Bishop James Ussher who lost his sight in his 50-year quest, laboriously outlined in his 2000 Latin pages of Annals - a chronology of all known history - that is now famous only for one spectacularly inaccurate 4004BC, the creation of the world. Theology failed Ussher, just as it thwarted Theophilus of Antioch and many others before him. Geology was next to fail the test of the Comte de Buffon, working out the rate at which the Earth was supposed to have cooled, came up with age of 74,832 years, even though he suspected this was far too little. Biology had a go in the 18th century in the hands of Johann Scheuchzer, who alleged that a fossil he had found was of a man at the time of Noah's flood; regrettably what he had was a large salamander. And so science inched forward via Darwinism, thermodynamics and radioactivity - each new discovery being applied to the enduring when had time begun. Until now, where telescopes of remarkable vision offer a glimpse of the answer, but the moment may prove to be indefinable just as we are on the verge of locating it.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published April 17, 2001

Reviews

[Cassandra Kay Silva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it! I felt so enlightened as to where people get these crazy notions about how old our universe is. It is a historical account of the many men and women who delved into the great question of our beginnings. Not necessarily what happened but just when, and how the came up with methods for testing their notions. You find out where the Christians came up with their calendar, about radioactive dating, and about other dating techniques using astronomy and how so many people have come up with so many dates. I think this book really nails down how terribly old our world must be. Our current methods have gone through rigorous scientific testing, and while not exact in some circumstances to the second we do at least know that our Universe is billions of years old, and that is really something isn't it!

[Muhammad Ayyaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

what a tremendously well articulated account of the historical overview of time of our universe.

[Tyler Kiley-Ram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent overview of humanity’s quest to find the birth of the universe and time. I almost didn’t grab this book from the used book store but I’m glad I did