I. Introduction
Carbon dating is a method of using naturally made carbon to estimate the age of materials up ranging from 58,000-62,000 years. The discoverer of this method of age estimation was Willard Libby, an American physical chemist. He developed this method in 1949 with some help from his colleagues at the university of Chicago. This method is said to have revolutionized archaeology and is still used to this day.
II. Discovery
This method of finding the age of fossils by using carbon from the sun (carbon dating) was discovered by Willard Libby in 1949. Willard was curious about the cosmic radiation from the sun that hit the earth, and he then was determined to find out how it could be noticed or detected. He soon then came up with his theory that stated that every living thing takes in C14 (carbon-14) and when it dies, the C14 decreases until it eventually disappears, but it doesn't diminish completely, it stays at a set rate which is half of the carbon that the item had before it ceased (7). He hypothesized this theory in 1946. As many times as Willard tried to prove this, he couldn't because there were many other natural sources giving off carbon so he and is colleagues used a Geiger Mueller radiation detector that they modified to find the carbon radiation that they wanted to find to prove his hypothesis. This reduced outside carbon source by 95%. This is how Willard first started to discover the radiation that came from the carbon, thus creating the method of carbon dating.
III. Biography of discoverer
Willard Libby (1908-1980)
He was born in Grand Valley, Colorado on December 17, 1908. He received his B.S. and PhD at the university of California in Berkeley, where he later became a professor. After the start of WWII, he started the Manhattan project at Columbia university, he was responsible for the gaseous diffusion of Uranium-235 that was later used in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. In 1945, he became a professor at the university of Chicago which led to his hypothesis (listed above) in 1946, with the help of his colleagues. And in 1960 he was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of the carbon dating method.
IV. Impact on the world/humanity
This method is good and still is good because it can be used to date materials back to about 50,000 years ago or more. Scientists can use this method as long as there are earth made or organic materials on the earth and they can use this to develop calendars and historical charts/timelines of their findings. For example, say a group of scientists find a dinosaur skeleton and date it back to a long time ago, they can now start a calendar and map how different species of dinosaurs that they find showed up and what time period they showed up around by using carbon dating. They can basically use it to see how old the species is and how long it has been fossilized. Archeologists around the world still use this method to this day!
V. Journal article review
This journal article is about how many scientists think that Neandertals lost their evolutionary fight with Homo sapiens to become the Earth's dominant human life form. These scientists all want to see how long this battle lasted , so they decided to use the famous method, carbon dating. And it also explains how these scientists are hoping to develop a time line back to the 60,000 year point to map out everything that happened between these two species, and they will figure it out all thanks to carbon dating.
YOUTUBE video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31-P9pcPStg
VI. References -
1. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Libby
2. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24000
3. Journal article: http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5028583679
Carbon dating is a method of using naturally made carbon to estimate the age of materials up ranging from 58,000-62,000 years. The discoverer of this method of age estimation was Willard Libby, an American physical chemist. He developed this method in 1949 with some help from his colleagues at the university of Chicago. This method is said to have revolutionized archaeology and is still used to this day.
II. Discovery
This method of finding the age of fossils by using carbon from the sun (carbon dating) was discovered by Willard Libby in 1949. Willard was curious about the cosmic radiation from the sun that hit the earth, and he then was determined to find out how it could be noticed or detected. He soon then came up with his theory that stated that every living thing takes in C14 (carbon-14) and when it dies, the C14 decreases until it eventually disappears, but it doesn't diminish completely, it stays at a set rate which is half of the carbon that the item had before it ceased (7). He hypothesized this theory in 1946. As many times as Willard tried to prove this, he couldn't because there were many other natural sources giving off carbon so he and is colleagues used a Geiger Mueller radiation detector that they modified to find the carbon radiation that they wanted to find to prove his hypothesis. This reduced outside carbon source by 95%. This is how Willard first started to discover the radiation that came from the carbon, thus creating the method of carbon dating.
III. Biography of discoverer
Willard Libby (1908-1980)
He was born in Grand Valley, Colorado on December 17, 1908. He received his B.S. and PhD at the university of California in Berkeley, where he later became a professor. After the start of WWII, he started the Manhattan project at Columbia university, he was responsible for the gaseous diffusion of Uranium-235 that was later used in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima. In 1945, he became a professor at the university of Chicago which led to his hypothesis (listed above) in 1946, with the help of his colleagues. And in 1960 he was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of the carbon dating method.
IV. Impact on the world/humanity
This method is good and still is good because it can be used to date materials back to about 50,000 years ago or more. Scientists can use this method as long as there are earth made or organic materials on the earth and they can use this to develop calendars and historical charts/timelines of their findings. For example, say a group of scientists find a dinosaur skeleton and date it back to a long time ago, they can now start a calendar and map how different species of dinosaurs that they find showed up and what time period they showed up around by using carbon dating. They can basically use it to see how old the species is and how long it has been fossilized. Archeologists around the world still use this method to this day!
V. Journal article review
This journal article is about how many scientists think that Neandertals lost their evolutionary fight with Homo sapiens to become the Earth's dominant human life form. These scientists all want to see how long this battle lasted , so they decided to use the famous method, carbon dating. And it also explains how these scientists are hoping to develop a time line back to the 60,000 year point to map out everything that happened between these two species, and they will figure it out all thanks to carbon dating.
YOUTUBE video- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31-P9pcPStg
VI. References -
1. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Libby
2. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24000
3. Journal article: http://www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5028583679
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