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A Natural History of Time
The quest to pinpoint the age of the Earth is nearly as old as humanity itself. For most of history, people trusted mythology or religion to provide the answer, even though nature abounds with clues to the past of the Earth and the stars. In A Natural History of Time , geophysicist Pascal Richet tells the fascinating story of how scientists and philosophers examined those clues and from them built a chronological scale that has made it possible to reconstruct the history of nature itself.
Richet begins his story with mythological traditions, which were heavily influenced by the seasons and almost uniformly viewed time cyclically. The linear history promulgated by Judaism, with its story of creation, was an exception, and it was that tradition that drove early Christian attempts to date the Earth. For instance, in 169 CE, the bishop of Antioch, for instance declared that the world had been in existence for “5,698 years and the odd months and days.”
Until the mid-eighteenth century, such natural timescales derived from biblical chronologies prevailed, but, Richet demonstrates, with the Scientific Revolution geological and astronomical evidence for much longer timescales began to accumulate. Fossils and the developing science of geology provided compelling evidence for periods of millions and millions of years—a scale that even scientists had difficulty grasping. By the end of the twentieth century, new tools such as radiometric dating had demonstrated that the solar system is four and a half billion years old, and the universe itself about twice that, though controversial questions remain.
The quest for time is a story of ingenuity and determination, and like a geologist, Pascal Richet carefully peels back the strata of that history, giving us a chance to marvel at each layer and truly appreciate how far our knowledge—and our planet—have come.
Richet begins his story with mythological traditions, which were heavily influenced by the seasons and almost uniformly viewed time cyclically. The linear history promulgated by Judaism, with its story of creation, was an exception, and it was that tradition that drove early Christian attempts to date the Earth. For instance, in 169 CE, the bishop of Antioch, for instance declared that the world had been in existence for “5,698 years and the odd months and days.”
Until the mid-eighteenth century, such natural timescales derived from biblical chronologies prevailed, but, Richet demonstrates, with the Scientific Revolution geological and astronomical evidence for much longer timescales began to accumulate. Fossils and the developing science of geology provided compelling evidence for periods of millions and millions of years—a scale that even scientists had difficulty grasping. By the end of the twentieth century, new tools such as radiometric dating had demonstrated that the solar system is four and a half billion years old, and the universe itself about twice that, though controversial questions remain.
The quest for time is a story of ingenuity and determination, and like a geologist, Pascal Richet carefully peels back the strata of that history, giving us a chance to marvel at each layer and truly appreciate how far our knowledge—and our planet—have come.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 2007
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53 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 10, 2007
Chisel job all the way. It turns out this is not really a book about peoples' ideas about time or the increasing precision of calenders then clocks. It is a history of geology (including what there was before geology and the relevant physics and chemistry) focused around the search for an age of the earth. It is most digression and thumb-nail bios of scientists. Worth having read.
April 22, 2016
Remember how your science class would mention a topic and a scientist who was instrumental in that field's development?
Remember how you would then move to another general topic and learn about a new scientist who did something big about that area with no connections drawn between them?
This book helps fill in some of the gaps. Just reading about how Copernicus affected Brahe who pushed Kepler who inspired Galileo whose trial disturbed Descartes whose work laid the foundations for Newton who was corrected by LaPlace was enough to convince me that this was going to be a great read. The real purpose of this book is to provide a history of our understanding of the age of the Earth, but it seriously inspired me to learn more about the history of my subject area of choice (mathematics). Dating the Earth was no simple task, it took hundreds of years (and dozens of wrong answers) to finally get to the answer we currently have. I never knew how we actually came to the current conclusion, but now I do, and it is amazing how the common element lead is what brought us to this place.
Read this book. Is it a page turner? No. But it is a fascinating explanation of how what he knew led to what we know and who got us here.
Remember how you would then move to another general topic and learn about a new scientist who did something big about that area with no connections drawn between them?
This book helps fill in some of the gaps. Just reading about how Copernicus affected Brahe who pushed Kepler who inspired Galileo whose trial disturbed Descartes whose work laid the foundations for Newton who was corrected by LaPlace was enough to convince me that this was going to be a great read. The real purpose of this book is to provide a history of our understanding of the age of the Earth, but it seriously inspired me to learn more about the history of my subject area of choice (mathematics). Dating the Earth was no simple task, it took hundreds of years (and dozens of wrong answers) to finally get to the answer we currently have. I never knew how we actually came to the current conclusion, but now I do, and it is amazing how the common element lead is what brought us to this place.
Read this book. Is it a page turner? No. But it is a fascinating explanation of how what he knew led to what we know and who got us here.
January 26, 2024
Time has long been a field of study, and Pascal Richet guides readers through the many iterations of how philosophers and scholars have understood the concept of time. I loved how Richet made a dense, long history accessible to the readers; I never felt like I was losing the narrative for how much information I needed to process. However, there were moments where I felt like there were logical leaps and I wanted a few more connecting details to understand how all of the concepts tied together under the umbrella of “time.” That said, I definitely recommend it to those interested in where the concept of time comes from and want to theorize where it might go from here.
thesisavoidance
October 18, 2007This is my $3 purchases entry. Nice tho. Has spawned a yawning detour into math and Descartes. Forgive me.
Want to read
August 1, 2010
December 29, 2012
From antiquity through Scripture and science, the quest for the age of the earth. Wide-ranging and humane.
Earth ± 4.54 billion; universe ± 14 billion.
Earth ± 4.54 billion; universe ± 14 billion.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews