The Age of Everything

The age of some things is easy to determine. For instance, by looking at the Declaration of Independence, we can establish that the United States is 231 years old. With a little ingenuity we can decode elegantly carved symbols found deep in the rain forests of Central America and uncover stories from the Mayan civilization that flourished more than one thousand years ago. But before recorded history, determining the age of things becomes more challenging. Here, Matthew Hedman shows how scientists have determined the age of everything from the colonization of the New World over 13,000 years ago to the age of the universe, which is nearly fourteen billion years old.

Taking advantage of recent advances throughout the sciences, Hedman brings the distant past closer to us than it has ever been. He details, for example, how interdisciplinary studies of the Great Pyramids of Egypt can determine exactly when and how these incredible structures were built. He shows how the remains of humble trees can illuminate how the surface of the sun has changed over the past ten millennia. And he also explores how the origins of the earth, solar system, and universe are being discerned with help from rocks that fall from the sky, the light from distant stars, and even the static seen on television sets.

Covering a wide range of time scales, from the Big Bang to human history, The Age of Everything is a provocative and far-ranging look at how science has determined the age of everything from modern mammals to the oldest stars, and will be indispensable for all armchair time travelers.