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The Age of Everything: How Science Explores the Past
Taking advantage of recent advances throughout the sciences, Matthew Hedman brings the distant past closer to us than it has ever been. Here, he shows how scientists have determined the age of everything from the colonization of the New World over 13,000 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.
“We are used to being told confidently of an enormous, measurable that some collection of dusty bones is tens of thousands of years old, or that astronomical bodies have an age of some billions. But how exactly do scientists come to know these things? 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.”—Steven Poole, Guardian
“Hedman is worth reading because he is careful to present both the power and peril of trying to extract precise chronological data. These are all very active areas of study, and as you read Hedman you begin to see how researchers have to be both very careful and incredibly audacious, and how much of our understanding of ourselves—through history, through paleontology, through astronomy—depends on determining the age of everything.”—Anthony Doerr, Boston Globe
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.
“We are used to being told confidently of an enormous, measurable that some collection of dusty bones is tens of thousands of years old, or that astronomical bodies have an age of some billions. But how exactly do scientists come to know these things? 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.”—Steven Poole, Guardian
“Hedman is worth reading because he is careful to present both the power and peril of trying to extract precise chronological data. These are all very active areas of study, and as you read Hedman you begin to see how researchers have to be both very careful and incredibly audacious, and how much of our understanding of ourselves—through history, through paleontology, through astronomy—depends on determining the age of everything.”—Anthony Doerr, Boston Globe
264 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 29, 2016
Perhaps I would rate this higher if I were more interested in the details of dating items via the half lives of radioactive elements, which took up about half the book.
Also, many errata, including missing words, the occasional wrong word, and at least one case of a duplicated page.
Also, many errata, including missing words, the occasional wrong word, and at least one case of a duplicated page.
October 29, 2015
Covering a wide range of topics such as: ancient calendars, modern dating methods for organic and inorganic material, and how we can calculate the age of stellar objects and the universe itself, this book takes readers on a journey through how scientists can determine the age of just about everything.
September 12, 2021
Fascinating book about scientifically dating everything from ancient civilizations to The Big Bang. Early on, the book was a bit popular science, but the book, like the universe itself, the further back one went, the denser it became.
October 26, 2024
Impressive range of topics and techniques discussed in-depth.
June 25, 2011
The Age of Everything by Matthew Hedman
The Age of Everything by Matthew Hedman is an interesting accessible book about how scientists determine the age of everything from carved symbols found deep in the rain forests of Central America to the age of the Universe. Thanks to the knowledge of converging scientific endeavors such as history, archaeology, biology, chemistry, geology, physics, and astronomy, and a lot of ingenuity we are now able to determine with more precision the age of "everything". The book is composed of the following twelve chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. The Calendars of the Classic Maya, 3. Precision, Polaris, and the Age of the Pyramids, 4. The Physics of Carbon-14, 5. Calibrating Carbon-14 Dates and the History of the Air, 6. Carbon-14 and the Peopling of the New World, 7. Potassium, Argon, DNA, and Walking Upright, 8. Molecular Dating and the Many Different Types of Mammals, 9. Meteorites and the Age of the Solar System, 10. Colors, Brightness, and the Age of Stars, 11. Distances, Redshifts, and the Age of the Universe, and 12. Parameterizing the Age of the Universe.
Positives:
1. Interesting topic that shows what it takes to estimate the age of things.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. You will end up with a much better understanding of how the decay of rate of known elements such as carbon-14 is used to determine the age of things. Furthermore, you will understand how that decay rate was validated by other scientific means.
5. Quantum mechanics explained so that even I can understand, sort of.
6. Want to know what Einstein considered his biggest failure as a scientist? You will find out in this book.
7. Many examples of interesting arguments within the scientific community, such as the arrival of the first people to the New World.
8. Plenty of illustrations and diagrams throughout the book.
9. My favorite chapter is how scientists determined the age of hominid bipedalism, love how converging sciences help to narrow the window of time.
10. Each chapter ends with further reading material, excellent!
11. I'll never look at a star the same way ever again.
12. I finally understand general relativity, Einstein would be proud....I think.
13. The author does a wonderful job of not "sugarcoating" the difficulties in estimating the age of things.
14. A lot of great scientific information in less than the 300 pages. A smooth, quick read.
Negatives:
1. If you don't like science by all means stay away from this book.
2. The Age of Everything can be dry at times.
3. 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.
The Age of Everything by Matthew Hedman is an interesting accessible book about how scientists determine the age of everything from carved symbols found deep in the rain forests of Central America to the age of the Universe. Thanks to the knowledge of converging scientific endeavors such as history, archaeology, biology, chemistry, geology, physics, and astronomy, and a lot of ingenuity we are now able to determine with more precision the age of "everything". The book is composed of the following twelve chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. The Calendars of the Classic Maya, 3. Precision, Polaris, and the Age of the Pyramids, 4. The Physics of Carbon-14, 5. Calibrating Carbon-14 Dates and the History of the Air, 6. Carbon-14 and the Peopling of the New World, 7. Potassium, Argon, DNA, and Walking Upright, 8. Molecular Dating and the Many Different Types of Mammals, 9. Meteorites and the Age of the Solar System, 10. Colors, Brightness, and the Age of Stars, 11. Distances, Redshifts, and the Age of the Universe, and 12. Parameterizing the Age of the Universe.
Positives:
1. Interesting topic that shows what it takes to estimate the age of things.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. You will end up with a much better understanding of how the decay of rate of known elements such as carbon-14 is used to determine the age of things. Furthermore, you will understand how that decay rate was validated by other scientific means.
5. Quantum mechanics explained so that even I can understand, sort of.
6. Want to know what Einstein considered his biggest failure as a scientist? You will find out in this book.
7. Many examples of interesting arguments within the scientific community, such as the arrival of the first people to the New World.
8. Plenty of illustrations and diagrams throughout the book.
9. My favorite chapter is how scientists determined the age of hominid bipedalism, love how converging sciences help to narrow the window of time.
10. Each chapter ends with further reading material, excellent!
11. I'll never look at a star the same way ever again.
12. I finally understand general relativity, Einstein would be proud....I think.
13. The author does a wonderful job of not "sugarcoating" the difficulties in estimating the age of things.
14. A lot of great scientific information in less than the 300 pages. A smooth, quick read.
Negatives:
1. If you don't like science by all means stay away from this book.
2. The Age of Everything can be dry at times.
3. 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.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews