Measuring Eternity
The Search for the Beginning of Time
Martin Gorst
- The
- untold
- story
- of
- the
- religious
- figures,
- philosophers,
- astronomers,
- geologists,
- physicists,
- and
- mathematicians
- who,
- for
- more
- than
- four
- hundred
- years,
- have
- pursued
- the
- answer
- to
- a
- fundamental
- question
- at
- the
- intersection
- of
- science
- and
- religion:
- When
- did
- the
- universe
- begin?The
- moment
- of
- the
- universe's
- conception
- is
- one
- of
- science's
- Holy
- Grails,
- investigated
- by
- some
- of
- the
- most
- brilliant
- and
- inquisitive
- minds
- across
- the
- ages.
- Few
- were
- more
- committed
- than
- Bishop
- James
- Ussher,
- who
- lost
- his
- sight
- during
- the
- fifty
- years
- it
- took
- him
- to
- compose
- his
- Annals
- of
- all
- known
- history,
- now
- famous
- only
- for
- one
- date:
- 4004
- b.c.
- Ussher's
- date
- for
- the
- creation
- of
- the
- world
- was
- spectacularly
- inaccurate,
- but
- that
- didn't
- stop
- it
- from
- being
- so
- widely
- accepted
- that
- it
- was
- printed
- in
- early
- twentieth-century
- Bibles.
- As
- writer
- and
- documentary
- filmmaker
- Martin
- Gorst
- vividly
- illustrates
- in
- this
- captivating,
- character-driven
- narrative,
- theology
- let
- Ussher
- down
- just
- as
- it
- had
- thwarted
- Theophilus
- of
- Antioch
- and
- many
- before
- him.
- Geology
- was
- next
- to
- fail
- the
- test
- of
- time.
- In
- the
- eighteenth
- century,
- naturalist
- Comte
- de
- Buffon,
- working
- out
- the
- rate
- at
- which
- the
- earth
- was
- supposed
- to
- have
- cooled,
- came
- up
- with
- an
- age
- of
- 74,832
- years,
- even
- though
- he
- suspected
- this
- was
- far
- too
- low.
- Biology
- then
- had
- a
- go
- in
- the
- hands
- of
- fossil
- hunter
- Johann
- Scheuchzer,
- who
- alleged
- to
- have
- found
- a
- specimen
- of
- a
- man
- drowned
- at
- the
- time
- of
- Noah's
- flood.
- Regrettably
- it
- was
- only
- the
- imprint
- of
- a
- large
- salamander.And
- so
- science
- inched
- forward
- via
- Darwinism,
- thermodynamics,
- radioactivity,
- and,
- most
- recently,
- the
- astronomers
- at
- the
- controls
- of
- the
- Hubble
- space
- telescope,
- who
- put
- the
- beginning
- of
- time
- at
- 13.4
- billion
- years
- ago
- (give
- or
- take
- a
- billion).
- Taking
- the
- reader
- into
- the
- laboratories
- and
- salons
- of
- scholars
- and
- scientists,
- visionaries
- and
- eccentrics,
- Measuring
- Eternity
- is
- an
- engagingly
- written
- account
- of
- an
- epic,
- often
- quixotic
- quest,
- of
- how
- individuals
- who
- dedicated
- their
- lives
- to
- solving
- an
- enduring
- mystery
- advanced
- our
- knowledge
- of
- the universe.
pro-mbooks3 : libris
