Bones, Rocks and Stars
The science of when things happened
by Chris Turney
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Downloadable author pictures
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Hear Chris Turney discussing Time in this fascinating talk
Reviews
“A fascinating guide to the measurement of time”Chemistry World
“Well researched and covers a lot of ground in a splendidly personal style. Highly recommended” Quaternary Australasia
“If you like detective stories, you'll love this book. It should satisfy the hungriest of infovores.” New Scientist
“5/5: a book that tackles [these] issues is welcome indeed — that it succeeds so brilliantly is a wonderful surprise.” Peter Andrews of the Natural History Museum, BBC Focus Magazine
“absorbing — will appeal to a wide audience, particularly those who got a kick out of Blink or Freakonomics” Publishers Weekly
'What I like best about the book: It's a scientist clearly
explaining what he does for a living and why it is important, at a level
that any literate person can understand. Not an easy accomplishment.'
scienceblogs.com/pharyngula
"This delightful introduction successfully fuses history,
prehistory and earth science. It captures the imagination from its first
page, and then takes the reader on a fun and fact-filled world tour through
the past." - Professor Tim White, University of
California at Berkeley
"A fabulous, entertainingly written
account of the amazing science
behind calendars, dates and dating objects. Essential reading for anyone
interested in prehistory." Professor Tim Flannery,
Director of the South Australian Museum
"A rollicking run through the story of telling the
time - lively and well-researched, with many fascinating stories."
Professor Michael Benton, author of When Life Nearly
Died
Description
What is the Turin Shroud? When were the Pyramids built? Where are
the branches on the human family tree? Why did the dinosaurs die out?
How did the Earth take shape? With questions like these, says Chris Turney,
time is of the essence. And understanding how we pinpoint the past, he
cautions, is crucial to putting the present in perspective and planning
for the future.
In ten chapters, each focusing on a well-known dating controversy (from
the existence of King Arthur to the last Ice Age), Turney reveals the
leg-work behind the headlines. Drawing on years of professional experience,
most recently with the celebrated 'Hobbit' fossil of Indonesia, Turney
explains how written records, carbon, pollen, tree rings, constellations,
and DNA sequencing can help archaeologists, paleontologists and geologists
to 'tell the time'. We ignore or misunderstand these techniques and their
results at our peril, he concludes
Author Biographies
CHRIS TURNEY is a British Geologist currently based at the
University of Wollongong, Australia. He did the radiocarbon dating on
the 'Hobbit' fossil of Flores, Indonesia, that hit the headlines worldwide.
He has published numerous scientific papers and magazine articles and
done many media interviews thanks to his infectious enthusiasm for working
out how old things are.