Time in Powers of Ten: Natural Phenomena and Their Timescales

The authors introduce the reader to the diversity of nature in a novel way by describing typical and interesting phenomena that occur or have occurred on many different time scales. The time scales considered differ by powers of ten, as the title of the book says, from the shortest times of which we have knowledge to the longest. I am sure many readers will enjoy the book as I have. - Edward Witten, Fields Medalist

Time is an essential dimension of life. Indeed, its remarkable and awesome variation of scale shapes the natural world. This book by Gerard 't Hooft and Stefan Vandoren gives us an exposé of a wide range of natural phenomena and their associated time scales, spanning the very small, the very large, and the life events of our universe. The book is elegantly illustrated and should be an enjoyable read for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the fourth dimension, time, and how it shapes our lives. - Ahmed Zewail, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

Like the original Powers of Ten, it is a wonderful book for flipping through and thinking about puzzles and is a good introduction to basics like how to tell a quark from a lepton. - The Dispatch

The book reveals the extraordinary complexity of our universe — it is a fascinating journey. - CERN Courier

This is a fascinating coffee-table book ranging from the unimaginably huge to the unimaginably tiny. - Ultramicroscopy

You can read the book in any direction. Delving into the index takes you on a mystery tour of the time domain. Helpfully, all the major phenomena are gathered together on an illustrated time line. This book is definitely one for your reading list. - Physics Education

Each text and each time scale form self-contained units, which can be understood on their own, even in continued topics. The book serves as a reference for time scales and invites browsing at the same time. - Physik Journal

In this richly illustrated book, Nobel Laureate Gerard 't Hooft and Theoretical Physicist Stefan Vandoren describe the enormous diversity of natural phenomena that take place at different time scales.

In the tradition of the bestseller Powers of Ten, the authors zoom in and out in time, each step with a factor of ten. Starting from one second, time scales are enlarged until processes are reached that take much longer than the age of the universe. After the largest possible eternities, the reader is treated to the shortest and fastest phenomena known. Then the authors increase with powers of ten, until again the second is reached at the end of the book.

At each time scale, interesting natural phenomena occur, spread over all scientific disciplines: orbital and rotation periods of planets and stars, decay times of elementary particles and atoms, biological rhythms and evolution processes, but also the different geological time scales.

The authors introduce the reader to the diversity of nature in a novel way by describing typical and interesting phenomena that occur or have occurred on many different time scales. The time scales considered differ by powers of ten, as the title of the book says, from the shortest times of which we have knowledge to the longest. I am sure many readers will enjoy the book as I have. - Edward Witten, Fields Medalist

Time is an essential dimension of life. Indeed, its remarkable and awesome variation of scale shapes the natural world. This book by Gerard 't Hooft and Stefan Vandoren gives us an exposé of a wide range of natural phenomena and their associated time scales, spanning the very small, the very large, and the life events of our universe. The book is elegantly illustrated and should be an enjoyable read for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the fourth dimension, time, and how it shapes our lives. - Ahmed Zewail, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry

Like the original Powers of Ten, it is a wonderful book for flipping through and thinking about puzzles and is a good introduction to basics like how to tell a quark from a lepton. - The Dispatch

The book reveals the extraordinary complexity of our universe — it is a fascinating journey. - CERN Courier

This is a fascinating coffee-table book ranging from the unimaginably huge to the unimaginably tiny. - Ultramicroscopy

You can read the book in any direction. Delving into the index takes you on a mystery tour of the time domain. Helpfully, all the major phenomena are gathered together on an illustrated time line. This book is definitely one for your reading list. - Physics Education

Each text and each time scale form self-contained units, which can be understood on their own, even in continued topics. The book serves as a reference for time scales and invites browsing at the same time. - Physik Journal

In this richly illustrated book, Nobel Laureate Gerard 't Hooft and Theoretical Physicist Stefan Vandoren describe the enormous diversity of natural phenomena that take place at different time scales.

In the tradition of the bestseller Powers of Ten, the authors zoom in and out in time, each step with a factor of ten. Starting from one second, time scales are enlarged until processes are reached that take much longer than the age of the universe. After the largest possible eternities, the reader is treated to the shortest and fastest phenomena known. Then the authors increase with powers of ten, until again the second is reached at the end of the book.

At each time scale, interesting natural phenomena occur, spread over all scientific disciplines: orbital and rotation periods of planets and stars, decay times of elementary particles and atoms, biological rhythms and evolution processes, but also the different geological time scales.