Walking Zero: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time along the Prime Meridian.

WALKING ZERO: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time along the Prime Meridian CHET RAYMO 

In 1884, the marking of the prime meridian--that invisible north-south line through Greenwich, England, that universalized time throughout the world--also marked a monumental change in the way in which people thought about time and space. The passing of days could no longer be measured only locally. As commerce expanded internationally and voyages between continents shrank to a matter of days and then hours, time became a planetwide phenomenon, in this book, Raymo describes a walk along the meridian from Brighton north through Greenwich to a point on the North Sea near Barrow upon-Humber. Along the way, the author visits the former residences of many of science's greatest leaders, such as Isaac Newton's chambers at Cambridge and Charles Darwin's home in Kent. From those points and others, the author ponders how people came to view the notion of time and the cosmos as things independent of and separate from human experience. The scientific method was the key to viewing the world objectively and thus discovering the fundamental nature of the universe, Raymo says. Eratosthenes calculated the Earth's circumference in the fourth century B.C. Galileo discovered that Earth revolved around the sun, and not the other way around. Geologists of the 18th century, such as Charles Lyell and Georges Cuvier, discovered fossils that hinted at the antiquity of Earth. These discoveries and others uprooted centuries of traditional and religious thought that had placed humankind at the center of the universe. Walker, 2006, 194 p., hardcover, $22.95.