Peter D. Ward

Time Machines: Scientific Explorations in Deep Time Peter D. Ward Softcover Reprint of the Original 1st Ed. 1998 edition

Description for Sales People: In ten essays united by a common theme, acclaimed author Peter D. Ward shows how paleontologists use time machines to probe the distant past. The machines may be as simple as a rock hammer, as humble as a magnifying glass or as esoteric as a mass spectrometer, but when powered by the imagination of scientists willing to take creative risks, each takes us on a fascinating journey to long-ago worlds. In the tradition of Loren Eisley and Steven Jay Gould, these essays present fascinating profiles of the past and the people who are making it come alive. 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.

Contributor Bio:  Ward, Peter D Dr. Peter D. Ward is a professor of biology and earth and space sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle. He also serves as an astrobiologist with NASA. Ward is the author of more than a dozen books, including the highly acclaimed Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe with Donald Brownlee and Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere.