Carbon Dating Gets an Update

ananyo writes "Climate records from a Japanese lake are set to improve the accuracy of carbon dating, which could help to shed light on archaeological mysteries such as why Neanderthals became extinct. Carbon dating is used to work out the age of organic material. But the technique assumes that the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere was constant — any variation would speed up or slow down the clock. Since the 1960s, scientists have started accounting for the variations by calibrating the clock against the known ages of tree rings. The problem is that tree rings provide a direct record that only goes as far back as about 14,000 years. Now, using sediment from bed of Lake Suigetsu, west of Tokyo, researchers have pushed the calibration limit back much further. Two distinct sediment layers have formed in the lake every summer and winter over tens of thousands of years. The researchers collected roughly 70-meter core samples from the lake and painstakingly counted the layers to come up with a direct record stretching back 52,000 years. The re-calibrated clock could help to narrow the window of key events in human history. Take the extinction of Neanderthals, which occurred in western Europe less than 30,000 years ago. Archaeologists disagree over the effects changing climate and competition from recently arriving humans had on the Neanderthals' demise. The more accurate carbon clock should yield better dates for any overlap of humans and Neanderthals, as well as for determining how climate changes influenced the extinction of Neanderthals."

Comments

nb4 the amateur trolls

[Black Parrot]

The problem is that tree rings provide a direct record that only goes as far back as about 14,000 years.

What's the problem? That's 7,984 years before the beginning of time.

Re:nb4 the amateur trolls

[girlintraining]

What's the problem? That's 7,984 years before the beginning of time.

*Steps out of the TARDIS* Hey, sorry to just pop in like this. Hello internet! Hello slashdot! So, anyway... where was I? Oh yes! Time! So, that idea's been out of style for, what, 500 years... so we were thinking, you must not be from around here, and so we've come to take you back to the 1400s. Don't give me that look! It's for your own good you know. Now, come along... we can't have people all out of time and space, it makes a real mess of the timestream. And these people, these beautiful beautiful people, they're about to do so much, yes, so very very much. And they don't need someone like you setting them back 600 years. Not now. So come on then, in you go!

Neanderthals aren't extinct...

[sitarlo]

...they dominate U.S. politics!

trolls get fiddy cent

[FatLittleMonkey]

Aren't you curious what God was up to before genesis? I mean, if God has existed forever, and the universe is just 6000 years old, then what the hell was he doing all the rest of that time? Off making other universes? Were they successful or not? How much baggage does God have? Are the angels the result of those previous geneses? If not, when were the angels created? And the cherubs, oh why won't anyone think of the cherubs?!

The theological implications of this new science are infinite and staggering.

Re:trolls get fiddy cent

[macbeth66]

Aren't you curious what God was up to before genesis? I mean, if God has existed forever, and the universe is just 6000 years old, then what the hell was he doing all the rest of that time?

Watching pr0n.

Yes, it is a time paradox, but this is God we're talking about.

Re:trolls get fiddy cent

[IHateEverybody]

As the documentary Battlestar Galactica explains, all this has happened before and all this shall happen again. God has created many worlds inhabited by humans but each time humans have created artificial intelligence which wiped them out. Often the AIs would continue and advance so far that they would believe themselves human and create their own AIs who would wipe them out as well. And so on and so on....Basically, God is a grad student running a giant experiment and he still hasn't gotten the bugs worked out just yet....

Re:trolls get fiddy cent

[girlintraining]

Aren't you curious what God was up to before genesis?

The same thing every man does first thing in the morning -- masturbating.

I mean, if God has existed forever, and the universe is just 6000 years old, then what the hell was he doing all the rest of that time? Off making other universes? Were they successful or not?

No. Once he saw what a mess he'd made of things, he put it all in the closet, got drunk, played X-Box, and forgot about the whole thing.

How much baggage does God have?

Let's just say him and the family attend regular therapy sessions...

Are the angels the result of those previous geneses? If not, when were the angels created? And the cherubs, oh why won't anyone think of the cherubs?!

No, the angels were "Version 1.0". After he realized he'd left off a few important bits, like genitals, he created man. It was a big improvement, but still far too buggy, so then he put out service pack 1, codename: Woman. Woman fixed all the major bugs of Man, but unfortunately the network stack had to be upgraded and that's why Man and Woman don't interface well. As to the cherubs... well... They're sortof the BeOS of His world: It was a great idea for the time, but it's since become rather dated, and few people remember them...

Re:trolls get fiddy cent

[Alsee]

God is a grad student

That's the problem right there. God has been indoctrinated in radical liberal ideology by college professors.
That's why we need strong conservative Christian leaders in power, to combat God's liberal bias.

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