Mark Tindall wrote: [snip]

Latest measurement of the age of the earth is around 13.7 billion years. [snip]

Chris's response:

You mean latest measurements of the age of the Universe. The significance of the results are not merely that the number is old. It is that you may now effecively omit the qualifier "around". The age reported is 13.7 +/- 0.2 billion years. This result is consistent with previous estimates, but the accuracy is unprecedented. The real interest of the work, however, is its insight in models of the early universe. <http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2003/0206mapresults.html> <http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_mm.html>

The Age of the Earth is 4.55 +/- 0.02 billion years. This value was first obtained in 1953 (but to an accuracy of only 0.3) and has since then been many times confirmed by different measurements and improved accuracy. <http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/geohist.html>

Cheers -- Chris