Carbon-14 analysis is a radiometric method that quantifies the abundance of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 (¹⁴C) in organic or carbonate samples to infer age, carbon turnover, or source attribution. It typically employs accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) or, less commonly, beta-decay counting to measure ¹⁴C/¹²C or ¹⁴C/¹³C ratios relative to standards, correcting for isotopic fractionation and background contamination. Methodological steps include chemical pretreatment to isolate target carbon fractions, combustion or hydrolysis to CO₂, graphitization or conversion for AMS targets, and calibration of radiocarbon ages using internationally agreed calibration curves to account for temporal variations in atmospheric ¹⁴C.
Biochar can store carbon in the soil and reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—yet we still know too little about how long the biochar will persist. Now, researchers from the Swedish University of Agricultural ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 20, 2026
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New analysis of traces of radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons testing trapped in the teeth of stranded whales has helped scientists reconstruct their life stories.
Plants & Animals
Oct 7, 2026
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When Pliny the Younger recorded his firsthand experience of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago—a cataclysm that buried Pompeii and killed his uncle, Pliny the Elder—he provided enough detail about the date to ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 25, 2026
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New analyses of ancient cattle, sheep and goat bones on Madagascar suggest the rapid spread of introduced livestock on the island 1,200 years ago coincided with forest loss and population declines of large native herbivores.
Ecology
Sep 24, 2026
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86
Deep within an ancient sinkhole lie the remains of dozens of mammoths, prehistoric wanderers who waded into the warm springs to their deaths. These deaths had long been accepted as having occurred roughly 26,000 years ago, ...
New research is dismantling the longstanding myth of the "pristine" Amazon. A reconstruction of 10,000 years of Amazonian pyrogeography, based on 1,361 radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates across 303 sites—including soil charcoal and ...
Earth Sciences
Aug 31, 2026
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13
In productive marine environments, a square meter (10.8 square feet) of seafloor can be perforated by hundreds to thousands of isolated and interconnected tunnels through which crawl and writhe a cornucopia of clams, shrimp, ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 21, 2026
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45
Our sun is capable of storms far bigger than we've ever recorded. Studying the world's oldest trees suggests we could soon be due one of these gargantuan events.
Planetary Sciences
Aug 17, 2026
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188
The wooly mammoth from Taimering (Bavaria, Germany), discovered in 2020, was buried in a former Ice Age pond after its death. Pollen findings and radiocarbon dating confirm that the mammoth lived and died during the harsh ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 3, 2026
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20
Madagascar is home to seven species of baobab trees, of which six are found nowhere else on the planet. Many of the trees have been alive for well over 1,000 years. The ancient trees have become symbols of Madagascar itself. ...
Environment
Apr 20, 2026
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