{"product_id":"natures-clocks-doug-macdougall-9780520249752","title":"Nature's Clocks: How Scientists Measure the Age of Almost Everything","description":"\"Radioactivity is like a clock that never needs adjusting,\" writes Doug Macdougall. \"It would be hard to design a more reliable timekeeper.\" In \u003ci\u003eNature's Clocks, \u003c\/i\u003eMacdougall 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Doug Macdougall\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0520249755\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780520249752\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of California Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/30\/2008\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.18h x 7.20w x 0.93d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/07\/2008 pg. 54\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/15\/2008 pg. 104","brand":"Doug Macdougall","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44809616261375,"sku":"9780520249752","price":63.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_b64dd796-e3e3-4beb-9f8c-0419aa5482a8.jpg?v=1707926995","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/natures-clocks-doug-macdougall-9780520249752","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}