Time Machines: Scientific Explorations in Deep Time / Edition 1

by Peter D. Ward

Overview

What is the past? It is a time as well as a place. Acclaimed author Peter D. Ward describes the tools that contemporary scientists use to uncover facts about the past - terrain, climate, and the life forms that once inhabited this planet. Time Machines presents fascinating profiles of the deep past and the scientists who are making it come alive.

"...for the general reader, Time Machines may be the most interesting book yet by the University of Washington prof..." -SEATTLE WEEKLY

"For anyone interested in how and why as well as the what of paleontology, Time Machines is a must read."-AMERICAN SCIENTIST

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780387984162
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	09/22/1998
Edition description:	1998
Pages:	241
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

One: Finding Time.- 1 Fossils and the Birth of the Geological Time Scale.- 2 Radiometric Clocks.- 3 Magnetic Clocks.- Two: Place.- 4 Baja British Columbia.- 5 Ancient Environments and the Level of the Sea.- Three: Inhabitants.- 6 The Bite of a Mosasaur.- 7 Virtual Ammonites.- 8 The Ancestry of the Nautilus.- 9 Of Inoceramids and Isotopes.- Four: The Time Machine.- 10 Cretaceous Park.- Afterword.- References.

Editorial Reviews

This fascinating, unique book examines aspects of geology in a different way than most of the standard scientific books in geology, or paleontology in particular. It is a suspenseful, story-telling book, but still clearly conveys the scientific facts. It examines many new aspects of geology in a simple, clear, appealing, and amusing way. Any graduate or undergraduate student in geology would enjoy reading this book because it evolves through the many explanations of a segment of the life history of our planet. The author has written his book in an interesting, entertaining, and educational way that provides the reader with accurate scientific conclusions while re-engineering the standard presentation of standard geology or paleontology books. Teachers and professors who teach an introductory geology course will greatly enjoy and benefit from this well-written book.
—AAPG Bulletin, V.83, No. 11

Fouad Michael