How radiocarbon dating revolutionised science

Subject :Science and Tech

Section: Nuclear technology

Context:

The technology allowed scholars a clearer and measurable view of the past, clarifying the history of human migration, the rise and fall of civilisations, and undulations of the earth’s climate.

About Radiocarbon dating:

Radiocarbon Dating is a method by which the age of an object can be determined.
This technique involves a method that does this using radiocarbon, a name for the isotope carbon-14.

Process of Carbon-14 formation

It is created in the earth’s atmosphere when cosmic rays– energetic streams of charged particles coming from sources in outer space – slam into the atoms of the gases and release neutrons.
When these neutrons interact with the nitrogen-14 isotope, they can produce carbon-14.
Since cosmic rays are ceaselessly passing through the earth’s atmosphere, carbon-14 is created constantly there.
It readily combines with atmospheric oxygen to form radioactive carbon dioxide.
This compound then enters the bodies of plants (via photosynthesis), animals (when they consume plants), and other biomass through the carbon cycle.
It is in the form of carbon dioxide and other carbon compounds, would have to be able to diffuse into the earth’s various ecosystems such that the concentration of carbon-14 in the atmosphere was comparable to the concentration of carbon-14 in the planet’s other biospheres.

Radiocarbon dating Working Process

When an organic entity – like the human body – is ‘alive’, it constantly exchanges carbon with its surroundings by breathing, consuming food, defecating, shedding skin, etc.
Through these activities, carbon-14 is both lost from the body as well as replenished, so its concentration in the body is nearly constant and in equilibrium with its surroundings.
When this individual dies, the body no longer performs these activities and the concentration of carbon-14 in the body begins to dwindle through radioactive decay.
The more time passes, the more the amount of carbon-14 lost, and the less there will remain. This decay rate can be predicted from theory.
Radiocarbon dating dates an object by measuring the amount of carbon-14 left, which scientists and/or computers can use to calculate how long ago the body expired.
The modern radiocarbon dating setup is more sophisticated and one of the most sensitive dating setups uses accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), which can work with organic samples as little as 50 mg.