Some of the carbon dioxide in your body is radioactive! Don’t worry, it won’t harm you (not sure why we used an exclamation point there). Instead, it might someday be detected by future archaeologists to determine how long ago you walked the Earth.
# Stuff You Should Know Episode Summary
Join Josh and Chuck as they dive deep into the fascinating science of radiocarbon dating, exploring how scientists can determine the age of ancient objects by measuring the decay of carbon-14 atoms. The episode traces the discovery back to Willard Libby's groundbreaking work in the 1940s, explains the surprisingly clever cosmic ray process that creates carbon-14 in our atmosphere, and breaks down how the half-life of radioactive elements gives us a reliable molecular clock. You'll learn why tree rings, coral reefs, and lake sediments have become crucial calibration tools for making radiocarbon dates more accurate, and discover some of the quirky assumptions and corrections scientists have had to make along the way to get these dating methods working properly.
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