author
Henry Faul
1920–1981
A geologist and science writer who helped make deep time and radioactive dating easier to grasp, he brought big Earth-history questions to a broad audience. His work connected frontier research in geophysics with clear, readable books for general readers.
1 Audiobook
Nuclear Clocks Revised
by Henry Faul
About the author
Born in Prague on July 17, 1920, and later educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Henry Faul became known as a geologist and geophysicist with a special interest in nuclear dating and the age of the Earth. During World War II, he worked on the Manhattan Project, and later held academic posts in Europe and the United States, including at the University of Pennsylvania.
Faul also wrote science for non-specialists. His best-known books include Nuclear Clocks and It Began with a Stone, the latter written with his wife, Carol Heubusch Faul. His writing is remembered for turning difficult ideas about geology, time, and scientific discovery into something approachable and lively.
He died in Philadelphia on September 16, 1981. Though not a household name, he played an important part in explaining how scientists read the history of the Earth from rocks, minerals, and radioactive change.