The Dating Game: One Man's Search for the Age of the Earth by Cherry Lewis

From the Publisher

How old is the Earth? At the end of the nineteenth century, geologists, biologists, physicists and astronomers were all looking for a clock that would provide and answer to this greatest Time question of all. Here is the story of one man's vision in developing a geological timescale that would finally lead to an accurate date for the Age of the Earth. Despite scientific opposition, financial hardship and personal tragedy, Arthur Holmes, perhaps the greatest geologist of the twentieth century, fought for fifty years to convince the geological "establishment" of a Earth of great antiquity, a fight that eventually transformed the moribund "art" of geology into a dynamic science, Cherry Lewis vividly brings Holmes and his quest back to life and skillfully weaves his personal adventures, loves, and losses into the story of how the Earth's age was determined and radioactivity discovered—the clock that tells geological time. More than a superb account of a significant scientific discovery, this engaging book gives inspiring witness to the power of the human will and spirit in overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds.

Publishers Weekly

Lewis's sketch of Arthur Holmes's (1890-1965) life and work captures a fascinating period of scientific achievement and recovers the accomplishments of a neglected thinker. The young Holmes was enamored of natural history and geology. As an adolescent, he eagerly followed the debates over the age of the Earth between the leading but aged physicist Lord Kelvin and his opponents, much younger scientists using radioactivity for dating. By age 21, Holmes had engaged in numerous experiments, seeking to perfect uranium-lead dating for determining the ages of rocks. Soon he used his research to gauge the Earth's age, and at 23, he wrote a seminal work, The Age of the Earth, in which he argued that the planet was 1.6 billion years old, refuting Kelvin's earlier estimate of 20 million years; later Holmes dated the Earth at 3.35 billion years. Eventually, as a professor of geology at Edinburgh University, he fulfilled his lifelong dream of producing a geological time scale that ordered the temporal ages of the Earth from the Cambrian period to the Pleistocene epoch. In his 1944 (and still used) book, Principles of Physical Geology, Holmes detailed these ideas and also proposed a theory of continental drift that challenged the reigning idea of a onetime land bridge. In due time, Holmes's conclusions about the Earth's age and plate tectonics were accepted into the scientific canon, even though, as Lewis, a British petroleum scientist, argues, he seldom receives credit. Science fans will appreciate Lewis's fast-paced biography tracing the evolution of Holmes's genius, the often hostile and sometimes divisive character of the scientific community and the quest to discover the age of the Earth. 44 illus. (Dec.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Booknews

While writing her doctoral thesis in geology at Bristol U., Lewis became fascinated with the man (pictured) who said in (1913): "It is perhaps a little indelicate to ask of our mother Earth her age, but Science acknowledges no shame." Holmes reconciled geological data with new findings from radioactivity. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

Describes the efforts of English scientist Arthur Holmes (1890-1965) to develop a geological timescale that would lead to an accurate date for the age of the earth. Stories from his life are interwoven with an account of his 50-year struggle to convince the scientific establishment of an Earth of great antiquity. Lewis has a PhD in Tibetan granites and works in the oil industry. The volume is not indexed. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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