It helped lead to more accurate readings of inanimate objects like rocks, too, which helped scientists narrow down the age of the Earth and how it has evolved through time.
Macdougall uses many differing sources for his book, as his "notes and further reading" section indicates. He uses books, journal articles, essays, and scientific data, and offers some of that data up in Appendixes in the back of the book. It is quite clear he is an expert in his subject. What is more important, however, is that he has the ability to make what could have been a very dry and dull subject very readable. He opens the book with the story of Oetzi, the Alpine Iceman, a fascinating look into the very heart of the book's thesis, and he grabs the reader's attention right away with this interesting story of a man who is probably at least 4,000 years old. He uses examples to draw the reader in before he gets too technical, and that makes this book much easier to read and enjoy. He says he hopes to share some of the "excitement"...
It has real science and scientific notations in it, but it attempts to explain things in terms that just about any reader can understand, and it does that quite well. It also helps the reader understand why these dating techniques are so important, and how scientists are still improving them to gain even more knowledge about the universe around us. It makes the reader anticipate those changes to see what else we can discover and learn through time and dating techniques.
References
Macdougall, Doug. Nature's Clocks: How Scientists Measure the Age of Almost Everything. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press,…
