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Obviously Don’t Set Off Nukes to Do Cool Science. Obviously
FROM 1945 TO 1963, the United States and the Soviet Union detonated over 400 nuclear bombs aboveground in a very bad, no good, uh, weapons-measuring contest that the world never wants to happen again. Atolls were destroyed, steppes contaminated, and fallout spread around the world. But what if some good came out of those nuclear detonations?
No, seriously.
When all those powerful bombs detonated, they spit out neutrons that set off a chain of events to create carbon-14, an exceedingly rare isotope of carbon. The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere spiked. That carbon-14 reacted with oxygen to make carbon dioxide. Plants breathed it in, animals ate the plants, and humans ate the animals and plants. “Everyone alive has been labeled with it,” says Bruce Buchholz, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “The entire planet has been labeled.”
Unlike the short-lived radioactive particles that come out of nuclear detonations, carbon-14 is not dangerous to humans—but it is very useful, because levels of the isotope have been slowly falling off since the 1950s spike. By measuring the amount of carbon-14 in a sample, scientists can pinpoint its age within just a year or two. They can use the method to find the age of an unidentified body using tooth enamel, or study how often human fat cells are born and die, or discover how old trafficked ivory is. It works with literally anything that has carbon.
No, seriously.
When all those powerful bombs detonated, they spit out neutrons that set off a chain of events to create carbon-14, an exceedingly rare isotope of carbon. The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere spiked. That carbon-14 reacted with oxygen to make carbon dioxide. Plants breathed it in, animals ate the plants, and humans ate the animals and plants. “Everyone alive has been labeled with it,” says Bruce Buchholz, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “The entire planet has been labeled.”
Unlike the short-lived radioactive particles that come out of nuclear detonations, carbon-14 is not dangerous to humans—but it is very useful, because levels of the isotope have been slowly falling off since the 1950s spike. By measuring the amount of carbon-14 in a sample, scientists can pinpoint its age within just a year or two. They can use the method to find the age of an unidentified body using tooth enamel, or study how often human fat cells are born and die, or discover how old trafficked ivory is. It works with literally anything that has carbon.
Snip
http://www.wired.com/2016/03/obviously-dont-set-off-nukes-cool-science-obviously/
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