Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened [Hardcover]

Chris Turney (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1403985995 | ISBN-13: 978-1403985996 | Publication Date: June 8, 2006

Understanding how we pinpoint the past is crucial to putting the present in perspective and planning for the future. Now, for the first time, journalist and geologist Chris Turney explains to the non-specialist exactly how archaeologists, paleontologists, and geologists "tell the time". Each chapter explores one famous event or object from the past, walking readers step by step through the detective work used to determine when things happened. From the Ice Age to the pyramids, from human evolution to the Shroud of Turin, Turney reveals how written records, carbon, pollen, constellations, DNA sequencing, and more all play a part in solving the mystery of the true age of objects and events. As we struggle to manage current environmental threats and conservation troubles, we ignore or misunderstand these techniques and their results at our peril.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell, geologist Turney provides an absorbing look into the ways humans reckon time both in their daily lives and in their view of the past. Bringing together science and history in a populist, intellectual adventure, Turney takes on an eclectic roster of world-class mysteries, from the identity of King Arthur and the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin to the age of the cosmos. Turney presents his arcane topics-such as the effect of earth's orbital irregularities on the construction of the pyramids-with the ease and affability of your favorite college professor, and narrates the history of these mysteries with a keen sense of drama. Although each of the chapters seems at first glance to be distinct from the rest (the calendar, comets, ice ages, megafauna, the Missing Link, and dinosaurs among them), the work is actually a single investigation broken into many parts, whose underlying unity emerges gradually. Though Turney means for the book to provide a refutation of Creationism (which he feels has no place in scientific discourse or education), he limits his engagement with the issue to the introduction and epilogue, wisely letting his subject matter speak for itself. This book will appeal to a wide audience, particularly those who got a kick out of Blink or Freakonomics.
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Review

"If you like detective stories, you'll love this book. It should satisfy the hungriest of infovores."--New Scientist

"absorbing...will appeal to a wide audience, particularly those who got a kick out of Blink or Freakonomics." --Publishers Weekly

"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

"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

"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

 "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

"Well researched and covers a lot of ground in a splendidly personal style. Highly recommended" --Quaternary Australasia

"A fascinating guide to the measurement of time"-- Chemistry World

 

 

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (June 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403985995
• ISBN-13: 978-1403985996
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,143,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chris Turney is a British geologist based at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Chris did the radiocarbon dating on the 'Hobbit' fossil of Flores (Indonesia) that hit the headlines worldwide in 2004. He has published over 50 scientific papers and magazine articles and done numerous media interviews thanks to his infectious enthusiasm for working out how old things are.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The mysteries of time revealed, December 29, 2007

By 

Stephen A. Haines (Ottawa, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened (Paperback)

In this series of evocative essays, Turney explains how our continually changing concept and use of time affects how we view the world and ourselves. Using a sprightly prose style, he opens with a description of various calendar systems developed by the ancients. It was difficult for them to reconcile the irregularities of lunar month, solar year and constantly changing heavens. Egypt, Babylon and Rome all struggled to maintain some control over the calendar. Many forms of adjustment were implemented but precision was difficult, if not impossible. The device of the "Leap Year" to adjust for the lack of precision was the best humans could do until the invention of the atomic clock.

The atom, with many versions and intricacies, has proven an effective tool in time-keeping. From measuring split seconds to granting us some insight on circumstances billions of years ago, "atomic clocks" in their various forms have provided many solutions to long unresolved problems. Turney's chapter on the Shroud of Turin is but one example of a practical application. Its status as a forgery went undetected for centuries until radiometric measurements revealed its true age.

A grander sweep of time, yet one with significant implications for today's world are the chapters on the eruption of Santorini in the Mediterranean and what led to the Ice Ages. Thera has been described as the cause of the elimination of the Minoan Empire. Based on Crete four thousand years ago, the Minoans operated an intricate network of trade routes in the region and were a highly sophisticated and successful people. Yet, they disappeared almost instantly around thirty-five hundred years ago. The author examines the evidence that Santorini might have been responsible. Further back in time, he reviews another threat to society in the form of invasive glaciers. Atoms play a role even in ice as accumulations of oxygen isotopes tell the story of climate change events. Even though some of those shifts rely on Earth's orbit and tilt relative to the sun, their signature rests with those oxygen atoms.

Human societies have their own fluctuations, as Turney notes in other chapters. The dating of hominid fossils has contributed a great deal in deriving both the time and place of our origins. Rocks surrounding bones tell us when the fossils lived, and tiny grains of pollen indicate the type of environment they lived in. One of the enigmas of science is why there is but one species of upright-walking ape remaining - us. There have been competitors for living space, most notably the Neanderthals. But at least one other species co-habited the planet with us. The "Hobbit" fossil found on an Indonesian island resided there only 18 thousand years ago, as Turney's own dating research revealed. The possibility that there may be remnant populations yet to be found raises compelling questions.

Turney's book may seem light-hearted at first glance, but it rests on serious work by dedicated workers. Dating the rocks was a difficult science in the 18th and 19th Centuries, but technology has provided astonishing new insights on our world. There's much to be learned and the author's effective presentation makes this book a stimulating introduction to this field. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable, July 20, 2008

By 

David C. Brayton (Healdsburg, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened (Hardcover)

After the first two chapters, this book get really interesting. The first two chapters are about how the different calendars used throughout history are synchronized and whether King Arthur actually existed. Not much science there.

But once we get into science (as opposed to history) things get interesting. For example, the chapter on the Shroud of Turin was great and the way tree rings can be used to date things is fascinating.

Unfortunately, there is very little science here. Instead, this book talks about the stories surrounding various scientific controversies.

I was much more interested in learning about the technical details of things like potassium argon dating, thermoluminesence, and electron spin resonance. But I wasn't gonna get that. Here's the disclaimer from the author when he starts talking about isotopes: "Unfortunately, to understand the [age of the Earth], it's going to be necessary to cross to the other side. I'll try and keep [references to isotopes] to the absolute minimum."

Unfortunately? "The Other Side"? Jimminy Cricket! I learned about isotopes in seventh grade, for crying out loud. I wish someone would write about science as if I actually made it through high school. I want to know about why these methods work, their limitations and when they should be used.


And I think I have the right to be disappointed. The book is subtitled: The Science of When Things Happened." Overall, though, it is quite interesting.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Do We Know, and When Did We Know It?, October 28, 2006

By 

William Holmes "semloh2287" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bones, Rocks and Stars: The Science of When Things Happened (Hardcover)

"Bones, Rocks and Stars" is an engaging and wide-ranging romp through "the science of when things happened." Each chapter covers a single topic, such as how the calendar evolved, when King Arthur would have lived (if he existed), when the Santorini volcano erupted in the Mediterranean, when the Shroud of Turin was forged (pulling no punches there), when (and why) the earth experiences ice ages, and when (exactly) the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid impact. Turney's style is approachable, so even carbon 14 dating, the precession of the equinoxes, Milankovitch cycles and other challenging topics are clearly explained.

If you enjoy enlightening and surprising books like Malcolm Gladwell's "Tipping Point" and "Blink," Cordelia Fines' "A Mind of Its Own" and Michael Leavitt's "Freakonomics," you may find this little book to be an eye opening and entertaining look at how scientists have figured out when things happened.