Wiggle room. The radiocarbon calibration curve now extends to 50,000 years and is more accurate. Credit: P. J. Reimer et al. Radiocarbon, 51 (2009)
Posted on 01/18/2010 1:32:41 PM PST by SunkenCiv
The basic principle of radiocarbon dating is fairly simple. Plants and animals absorb trace amounts of radioactive carbon-14 from carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere while they are alive but stop doing so when they die... Most experts consider the technical limit of radiocarbon dating to be about 50,000 years, after which there is too little carbon-14 left to measure accurately.
...The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere varies with fluctuations in solar activity and Earth's magnetic field, and "raw" radiocarbon dates have to be corrected with a calibration curve that takes these fluctuations into account.
...To calibrate the period extending from the present to about 12,000 years ago, the team has used thousands of overlapping tree-ring segments from the Northern Hemisphere, which provide a very accurate check of raw radiocarbon dates and how much they must be corrected. But for dates older than the available tree-ring record, the researchers had to turn to several other, less-precise data sets on ancient CO2 levels, including fossil foraminifers (single-celled organisms that secrete calcium carbonate) and corals.
By 2004, the INTCAL group was able to agree on a curve that stretched to 26,000 years ago, because the foraminifer and coral data were in reasonably close agreement up to that point. That curve, called INTCAL04, was published the same year. But hopes to extend the curve all the way to 50,000 years ago were dashed. The data sets diverged from each other by up to several thousand years after 26,000 years ago, and researchers could not agree on which ones were most accurate and how to combine the several data sets.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenow.sciencemag.org ...
Wiggle room. The radiocarbon calibration curve now extends to 50,000 years and is more accurate. Credit: P. J. Reimer et al. Radiocarbon, 51 (2009)
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Well, science honestly and openly tunes its measurement methodology.
That about does it for The Theory Of Evolution — if science was wrong in the past and needed to “correct” then it is COMPLETELY wrong on TTOE.
Because everyone knows that logic dictates that anything wrong with science means everything is wrong with science so the results are up to a vote by lay people.
I voted to make pi easier, so maybe I’ll get another shot.
They just need to get some of the climate scientists to lend a hand.
That little divergence can be covered quickly.
A little factoid ignored by creationists who blandly assert that samples 500 MY and 1 MY old (as dated by those evil evolutionists) have identical carbon 14 dates and are therefore the same age. Thus "proving" that all non-Biblical dating methods are false.
When deliberately misrepresenting carbon 14 dating creationists insist it's accurate, if so doing "proves" a young earth.
Otherwise, when C14 dates are used within their useful range had show dates older than 6014 years, C14 dating is inaccurate.
Amazing when this level of intelectual dishonesty is found in someone other than a liberal...
WHAT are you saying? And yeah, I am one of those that remains unconvinced the world is over 6,000 years old.
WHAT are you saying? And yeah, I am one of those that remains unconvinced the world is over 6,000 years old.
Take the Democrats in Massachusetts ~ they've got Harvard and MIT, and whole buildings full of medical researchers, scientists, etc. So what is it they believe? Well, that America was created the day Teddy Kennedy took office.
Such stupidity has its own reward ~ as they'll discover tomorrow!
You seriously believe that 12,000 years worth of overlapping tree rings adds up to no more than 6000 years?
Remarkable.
No, measurements that were pretty good have been made even more accurate.
I’m pretty sure they don’t care whether or not you’re impressed.
I definitely don’t.
I’ll betcha the Neandertals *invented* pie...
:’) :’D
"...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent." -- Goethe , "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774)more often phrased this way:
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. -- Robert J. Hanlon, "Murphy's Law Book Two, More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong" (1980)and I had thought it was from Mark Twain. When I looked for the exact wording, I found the wiki-wacky-pedia page, which noted that it was also said this way, and earlier:
You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity. -- Robert A. Heinlein, "Logic of Empire" (1941)and for that matter, this one:
Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence. -- attributed to Napoleon (18th c)This other version is too weird not to mention:
Many journalists have fallen for the conspiracy theory of government. I do assure you that they would produce more accurate work if they adhered to the cock-up theory. -- Sir Bernard Ingham
>>And yeah, I am one of those that remains unconvinced the world is over 6,000 years old.<<
And the world is round and we never landed on the moon and aliens are stealing your luggage, right?
On what SCIENTIFIC basis do you make your conclusion? The fact that we passed speed laws stating nothing can go faster than 55 MPH means that light does not exceed that speed?
The stars are just pretty lights in the sky, scattered by a turtle upon whose shell we ride?
LOL — am I good or what?
I *knew* those who don’t understand science (yet use it to even post on this board) would descend and say that all science (except that which they think they use — never mind what they don’t know what they use like TTOE in their drugs) is now subject to a vote.
>>I’ll betcha the Neandertals *invented* pie...<<
Take circle, take snake skin, wrap around... make marks... *AARRGGHH!* Duggie’s science experiment “fier” make circle AND snake skin go away!
The book of Genesis makes it pretty clear that God created a mature world with “trees bearing fruit with seed in them”(ch1v12). I imagine trees at creation had tree rings.
Maybe it was calzone, i forget...
Aluminum causes alzheimer’s, amalgam fillings cause more health problems than silicone breast implants, mercury in childhood vaccines cause autism, cell phones cause brain cancer, Aquanet made the ozone hole, and humans eating too many beans cause the icecaps to melt and a hundred foot wall of water to come rushing inland as far as the Appalachians. :’)
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