Natures Clocks

"Radioactivity is like a clock that never needs adjusting," writes Doug Macdougall. "It would be hard to design a more reliable timekeeper." In Nature's Clocks, Macdougall tells how scientists who were seeking to understand the past arrived at the ingenious techniques they now use to determine the age of objects and organisms. By examining radiocarbon (C-14) dating—the best known of these methods—and several other techniques that geologists use to decode the distant past, Macdougall unwraps the last century's advances, explaining how they reveal the age of our fossil ancestors such as "Lucy," the timing of the dinosaurs' extinction, and the precise ages of tiny mineral grains that date from the beginning of the earth's history. In lively and accessible prose, he describes how the science of geochronology has developed and flourished. Relating these advances through the stories of the scientists themselves—James Hutton, William Smith, Arthur Holmes, Ernest Rutherford, Willard Libby, and Clair Patterson—Macdougall shows how they used ingenuity and inspiration to construct one of modern science's most significant accomplishments: a timescale for the earth's evolution and human prehistory.

"Radioactivity is like a clock that never needs adjusting," writes Doug Macdougall. "It would be hard to design a more reliable timekeeper." In Nature's Clocks, Macdougall tells how scientists who were seeking to understand the past arrived at the ingenious techniques they now use to determine the age of objects and organisms. By examining radiocarbon (C-14) dating—the best known of these methods—and several other techniques that geologists use to decode the distant past, Macdougall unwraps the last century's advances, explaining how they reveal the age of our fossil ancestors such as "Lucy," the timing of the dinosaurs' extinction, and the precise ages of tiny mineral grains that date from the beginning of the earth's history. In lively and accessible prose, he describes how the science of geochronology has developed and flourished. Relating these advances through the stories of the scientists themselves—James Hutton, William Smith, Arthur Holmes, Ernest Rutherford, Willard Libby, and Clair Patterson—Macdougall shows how they used ingenuity and inspiration to construct one of modern science's most significant accomplishments: a timescale for the earth's evolution and human prehistory.

There is more to biological rhythms than circadian clocks. This book aims at promoting the exciting potential of a deeper understanding of circannual, circatidal, and circalunar clocks. It highlights new developments, summarizes existing knowledge, and integrates different perspectives with the tools and ideas of diverse fields of current biology. For predominantly pragmatic reasons, research in recent decades was mostly concerned with circadian clocks. Clocks on other timescales, however, have been largely neglected and therefore still appear "enigmatic". Thanks to the rapid development of methods in molecular biology as well as in ecology, we are now able to re-approach these clocks. Laboratories around the world are showing fresh interest and substantial progress is being made in many independent projects. The book's two sections address the moon-derived circatidal, circasemilunar, and lunar cycles on the one hand (10 chapters), and the sun-derived circannual cycles on the other (6 chapters). This work brings together authors with an expansive array of expertise and study systems, ranging from tidal cycles of marine invertebrates to annual cycles of birds and mammals, and from behavioral to genetic and epigenetic backgrounds. While great challenges remain to be mastered, the book aims at conveying the excitement of unraveling, broadly, the rhythms of life.

Discusses and explains the biorhythms and circadian rhythms of animals.

Welcome to the journey. Become a companion to the sunshine and shadows of The Tick-Tock of Nature's Clock. Run with the fox through a prairie of honey-colored wheat. March with the ants as they prepare for winter. Fly with the butterflies around the bear. Step on the dry leaves of autumn. Adventure is waiting inside. Explore.

Explores mankind's developing notion of time, from the first primitive clocks and sundials to the expanding space-time of the theory of relativity.

Examines why some plants blossom only in daylight, how birds know when and where to migrate, and other intriguing aspects of human and animal biological clocks.

This book is an introduction to a basic property of life, one mostly unknown to science and the public until the latter half of the last century: Humans, plants, and animals have within their bodies a kind of clock that synchronizes much of what they do throughout their lives to the time ofday and the seasons, and in the case of the sea-dwelling organisms, the tides. This timepiece performs its service autonomously - it rules silently within us without us giving a thought to it.Three chapters are devoted to the human clock: its disruptive action in transmeridional travel and shift work, its oversight in most every aspect of our physiology, and how doctors being aware of its action can save lives. Other major subjects describe the role in piloting birds in homing andmigration, guiding the seasonal reproduction of plants and animals, and its influence on shore dwellers. The book closes with a description of the clockworks' escapement.

With stunning infographics on every page, this riveting visual guide reveals the mind-bending marvels of nature’s timescales both large and minuscule “This work broadens our perception of time by looking at it through natural cycles . . . . The visuals seamlessly enhance the text, making for an impactful learning experience.”—Booklist starred review Take a visual journey of discovery through the animal and plant kingdoms—and uncover the extraordinary rhythms of nature! Here are the answers to all kinds of curious questions, including: How long do eggs take to hatch? Do dogs really need more sleep than humans? What are the world’s fastest- and slowest-growing plants? And many more! These infographics shed light on the truly remarkable range of the natural world—how plants and animals grow and age, sleep and migrate, and reproduce and die. Spanning ideas both big and small—from evolution to animal behavior—The Time Nature Keeps is a visual trove of nature’s clocks that brings the world’s cadences to life before our eyes.