It’s entirely possible to read a book with both great appreciation and a good deal of exasperation. Case in point: David J. Helfand’s
The Universal Timekeepers: Reconstructing History Atom by Atom
. Helfand, we’re told, formerly chaired Columbia University’s Astronomy Department and has taught there for almost fifty years. More: “He was also president and chancellor of Quest University in Canada. Helfand is the chair of the American Institute of Physics and past president of the American Astronomical Society.” On top of all that, he has written for a wide range of non-scholarly publications.