News tagged with radiocarbon
Experts determine age of book 'nobody can read'
(PhysOrg.com) -- While enthusiasts across the world pored over the Voynich manuscript, one of the most mysterious writings ever found – penned by an unknown author in a language no one understands – ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Feb 10, 2011 |
4.3 / 5 (80) |
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Scientists detect huge carbon 'burp' that helped end last ice age
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have found the possible source of a huge carbon dioxide 'burp' that happened some 18,000 years ago and which helped to end the last ice age.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 27, 2010 |
3.7 / 5 (31) |
18
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Dramatic ocean circulation changes revealed
The unusually cold weather this winter has been caused by a change in the winds. Instead of the typical westerly winds warmed by Atlantic surface ocean currents, cold northerly Arctic winds are influencing ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 14, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (22) |
13
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Researcher: Faint writing seen on Shroud of Turin (Update)
(AP) -- A Vatican researcher has rekindled the age-old debate over the Shroud of Turin, saying that faint writing on the linen proves it was the burial cloth of Jesus. Experts say the historian may be reading ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Nov 20, 2009 |
2.4 / 5 (40) |
97
World's Oldest Leather Shoe Found in Armenia
(PhysOrg.com) -- A perfectly preserved shoe, 1,000 years older than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and 400 years older than Stonehenge in the UK, has been found in a cave in Armenia.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Jun 09, 2010 |
4.9 / 5 (18) |
9
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Big quakes more frequent than thought on San Andreas fault
Earthquakes have rocked the powerful San Andreas fault that splits California far more often than previously thought, according to UC Irvine and Arizona State University researchers who have charted temblors there stretching ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 20, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (18) |
2
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Rock analysis suggests France cave art is 'oldest'
Experts have long debated whether the sophisticated animal drawings in a famous French cave are indeed the oldest of their kind in the world, and a study out Monday suggests that yes, they are.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 07, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (17) |
3
Dog skull dates back 33,000 years
If you think a Chihuahua doesn't have much in common with a Rottweiler, you might be on to something.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Jan 23, 2012 |
4.7 / 5 (15) |
3
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Stonehenge skeleton came from Mediterranean
(AP) -- A wealthy young teenager buried near Britain's mysterious Stonehenge monument came from the Mediterranean hundreds of miles away, scientists said Wednesday, proof of the site's importance as a travel ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Sep 29, 2010 |
4.6 / 5 (15) |
3
New research suggests Neanderthals weren't stupid
(PhysOrg.com) -- Neanderthals used makeup and jewellery challenging the idea that they were cognitively inferior to early modern humans, according to research published in the Proceedings in the National Ac ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Jan 11, 2010 |
4.6 / 5 (14) |
2
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Australia's earliest contact rock art discovered
(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers have discovered evidence of Southeast Asian sailing vessels visiting Australia in the mid-1600s -- the oldest contact rock art in Australia.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Jul 23, 2010 |
4.6 / 5 (14) |
2
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True causes for extinction of cave bear revealed
The cave bear started to become extinct in Europe 24,000 years ago, but until now the cause was unknown. An international team of scientists has analysed mitochondrial DNA sequences from 17 new fossil samples, ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Aug 24, 2010 |
4.3 / 5 (15) |
33
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Neanderthals died out earlier than originally believed
(PhysOrg.com) -- According to a newly released report in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a newly refined method of radiocarbon dating has found that Neanderthals died off much earlier than o ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 10, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (14) |
24
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Neanderthals did not make jewelry after all
(PhysOrg.com) -- The theory that later Neanderthals might have been sufficiently advanced to fashion jewellery and tools similar to those of incoming modern humans has suffered a setback. A new radiocarbon ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Oct 19, 2010 |
4.7 / 5 (13) |
7
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Study gives clues about carbon dioxide patterns at end of Ice Age
(PhysOrg.com) -- New University of Florida research puts to rest the mystery of where old carbon was stored during the last glacial period. It turns out it ended up in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica.
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 25, 2010 |
4.5 / 5 (13) |
0
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Carbon-14
Carbon-14, 14C, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon discovered on February 27, 1940, by Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, though its existence had been suggested already in 1934 by Franz Kurie. Its nucleus contains 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method to date archaeological, geological, and hydrogeological samples.
There are three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon on Earth: 99% of the carbon is carbon-12, 1% is carbon-13, and carbon-14 occurs in trace amounts, e.g. making up as much as 1 part per trillion (0.0000000001%) of the carbon in the atmosphere. The half-life of carbon-14 is 5,730±40 years. It decays into nitrogen-14 through beta decay. The activity of the modern radiocarbon standard is about 14 disintegrations per minute (dpm) per gram carbon.
The atomic mass of carbon-14 is about 14.003241 amu. The different isotopes of carbon do not differ appreciably in their chemical properties. This is used in chemical research in a technique called carbon labeling: some carbon-12 atoms of a given compound are replaced with carbon-14 atoms (or some carbon-13 atoms) in order to trace them along chemical reactions involving the given compound.
For more information about Carbon-14, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
