| A History of Modern Planetary Physics: Transmuted Past Contributor(s): Brush, Stephen G. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521552133 ISBN-13: 9780521552134 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $114.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: March 1996 Annotation: The age of the Earth has been one of the most disputed numbers in science since the 17th century. Although most earth scientist and astronomers accept the Earth's age to be 4.55 billion years, much significance lies in the manner in which that figure was determined. Transmuted Past follows the development of theories of stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis in the 20th century and describes radiometric methods for estimating the age of the Earth. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the reputation of the planetary sciences changed significantly; whereas the planetary sciences once played an integral role in science, they eventually came to be accorded a status inferior to atomic physics and cosmology. Professor Brush explores this shift and shows how a planetary science such as geology can provide a useful example of the scientific approach for comparison with a humanistic discipline such as history. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Science | History - Science | Earth Sciences - Geology - Science | Physics - Astrophysics |
| Dewey: 523.2 |
| LCCN: 95032974 |
| Series: History of Modern Planetary Physics |
| Physical Information: 0.57" H x 6.37" W x 9.57" (0.90 lbs) 146 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Transmuted Past follows the development of theories of stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis in the twentieth century and describes radiometric methods for estimating the age of the Earth. Professor Brush also offers perspectives on the changing reputation of planetary science relative to the pure sciences, such as physics, and a comparison of history and geology as ways of studying the past. |
