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Petrified Wood In Days, Not Millions Of Years

Posted by timothy on from the wood-rocks dept.

prostoalex writes "Any petrified wood enthusiast would tell you that a quality product takes millions of years to mature, following Mother Nature's course, which, of course, is very frustrating for anyone experimenting. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory now managed to get the process in few days, USA Today says. The scientific achievement will be beneficial for "separating industrial chemicals, filtering pollutants and soaking up contamination"."

6 of 76 comments (clear)

  1. Natalie Portman by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    A piece of wood in the shape of Natalie Portman... naked and petrified!

  2. Re:Carbon Dating by pv2b · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Heh. I don't think whatever process they're using will change the half-life of carbon-14. That's a nuclear process, not a chemical one.

    It would be cool though, if you could accellerate radioactive decay that easilly. You could just blast your nuclear waste with it and not have to store any more nuclear waste far underground.

  3. Re:Carbon Dating by Stroman+Rebar · · Score: 3, Informative
    The process they are using will not (shouldn't anyway) affect the isotopic distribution of the carbon, so technically you could probably still "carbon date" it. But, since they were using boards bought at a local lumberyard, it wouldn't tell them much.

    If you want more on the specifics of carbon dating, check the Wikipedia:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dating

    As far as accelerating radioactive decay, there is some interesting research out there about bombarding fission products with accelerated particles and causing a several-fold reduction in decay times. A former ASU nuclear physics professor envisioned one method for it:

    http://members.cox.net/theroyprocess/

    A note of caution: The "Roy Process" web site is run by the former professor's "Agent" so its slanted more for sales than education.

  4. Wait, let me get this straight... by jkmiecik · · Score: 4, Funny

    Any petrified wood enthusiast

    A what now? Those exist?!

  5. Look Buddy by Deliveranc3 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm still waiting for my fake/real diamonds! $5 a carrat my ASS!

    Frigging diamond cartels! I wanna cut some glass!

  6. Full Text by Hoch · · Score: 3, Informative

    Full Text in Advanced Materials
    I love that you can always find the USA today equivalent on slashdot, but never anything more in depth, doesnt this site cater to nerds?

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