Customer Reviews

The Age of Everything: How Science Explores the Past

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As indicated in the introduction, the aim of this book is to provide the public with a sampling of the methods that are used to measure the ages of various things. It is based on a series of lectures that the author has given on this subject. Using as tools the precession of the earth's axis, the decay of radioactive isotopes of certain elements, DNA, light from distant stars, cosmic background radiation, etc., the items whose ages are explored include (but are not limited to) the Classic Mayan civilization, Egyptian pyramids, various archaeological artifacts, events in human evolution, meteorites, stars and even the universe. Since the book is aimed at the general public, mathematical details have been omitted. However, the author pulls very few punches regarding the level at which each case is presented. As a result, readers may find some chapters challenging if they have little or no prior familiarity with the basics of the topics presented. The book contains many diagrams and plots that complement the main text very well. The writing style is clear, authoritative, generally friendly but occasionally dry. This book can be enjoyed by the more serious general reader but it will likely be appreciated the most by science buffs. There is much too learn from this book. As a result, it would likely make a useful reference in university courses on this subject.

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.

This book would be the perfect gift for the educated reader who has an interest in any of the following topics: the ancient Maya, ancient calendrical systems, human evolution, radiocarbon dating, potassium-argon dating, so-called "molecular clocks," the evolution of animals, the age of the universe, etc. Dr. Hedman demonstrates a thorough knowledge of a very wide range of scientific topics which are all thematically tied together by the idea of determining chronology and age. Anyone who has read Spencer Wells's popular books on human ancestry (or Brian Sykes's) will probably enjoy this book, which complements the others rather than duplicating their more involved discussions about molecular biology (the author is an astronomer-anthropologist rather than a geneticist). This book might also appeal to those who enjoy Jared Diamond's work. I think the book might be especially appealing to engineers and others with a grounding in "hard science" who have always had an interest in archaeology, human evolution, etc, but its inter-disciplinary focus makes the book appealing to a wide audience.

The only issue I have with the book is one common to non-specialists who write about archaeological cultures such as the ancient Maya: they are the Maya, not the Mayans (just as the term for one ancient culture in the South American Andes is the Inca [or Inka, to use a more modern, quechuanized spelling], not the Incans). You would think that editors from a top-notch academic press like Chicago would have insisted on using the correct terminology!