الكربون المشع في نباتنا وحيواننا وفي أجسامنا .. كتاب في سبيل موسوعة علمية

Radioactive carbon is in our plants and animals, in our bodies, in our lunch, dinner and breakfast

Two processes in this life, always exist side by side
Side: The process of creation, alongside which is the process of annihilation.

This is the case in what we have described regarding the creation of an atom
With radiation, then the annihilation of radiation in this atom.

Cosmic rays shower our air, the Earth's atmosphere, at its heights, with neutrons, creating radioactive carbon from its nitrogen, and this mixes with the atmosphere in its various layers, until it spreads throughout it evenly. At the same time, an automatic process takes place, the opposite of this, which is the return of the radioactive carbon to nitrogen, and its irradiation of electrons.

The extent of creation is exactly equal to the extent of annihilation.
So the percentage of radioactive carbon in the atmosphere remains constant, I mean
Its ratio to ordinary non-radioactive carbon.

And in all living things:

It is the same as the radiocarbon percentage, in all
The living, to the non-radioactive.

Because all living things continue to exchange some carbon with the air
She remained alive. The plant takes carbon from the air to make it, and from the earth's water and some of its elements, its body while it breathes, which is a process in which the plant returns some of the carbon it took to the atmosphere. Give and take, of both types of carbon: radioactive and non-radioactive.

The ratio between the two types in a living plant is the same as it is in the air.

Animals eat plants to make their bodies from them, and they burn this food, then they breathe and return some of its carbon to the atmosphere. It is, therefore, “an exchange between animals and plants, and between the air in the atmosphere, which makes the ratio of radioactive carbon to non-radioactive carbon in a living organism the same as its ratio in the air, as long as a plant remains alive, and as long as an animal or human remains alive.”

-And if the living die...

If the living things die, whether animals or plants, they are dead
All decays quickly, and returns to the air, carbon oxide, containing both radioactive and non-radioactive carbon.
But some remains: a tree dies, and its wood remains for years and centuries. Cattle die, but their hair and hooves remain for generations, carrying their carbon.
A person dies and his skin or bones remain.

The connection between these living beings and the air in the atmosphere has been cut off since the day they died. From the day it died, it did not receive any new radioactive carbon from the air. It died with a known amount of radioactive carbon in it, which is what is in the air. It is fixed over time. This radiation in these wastes disappears year after year, and century after century.

It is these wastes that scientists aim to determine their ages. They measure how much of its radiation is lost, and they have the amount of radiation lost in a known time... of the radiation of the element carbon, whatever its source. So they calculate how long this archaeological remains, whether plant or animal, has been losing its radiation. So how long did it take?
He lost his life. So when did he live?

Professor Libby said that every atom of a trace that was once alive bears testimony to its birth.

I say: Every speck of trace that was once alive bears testimony to the year of its death.

How much carbon is radioactive carbon?

Professor Libby calculated how much is in the atmospheric air, how much of its carbon (which is in the form of carbon dioxide as we presented) is non-radioactive carbon, and how much is radioactive carbon.

It came out of the calculation as existing, with every atom
One radioactive carbon, one million million atoms of stable, non-radioactive ordinary carbon.

At this ratio, carbon is found in every living organism, as long as it remains alive, it exchanges its carbon with the atmospheric air.

(radiocarbon)
(The nucleus of a nitrogen atom in the atmosphere is hit by a neutron from cosmic rays, dissolves in it, and expels a proton from it. The nucleus becomes an unstable radiocarbon atom, trying to return to nitrogen.)

(Azot)
(The nucleus of an unstable, radioactive carbon atom returns to its origin, to nitrogen, and a neutron from it is transformed into a proton, and with the transformation an electron comes out, which is the radiation that the meter counts)

It was found that all the radioactive carbon in and around this Earth does not exceed 79 tons!!

How long does it take for radioactive carbon to lose its radiation?

We have previously said that radioactive carbon, in a given mass of carbon, loses half of its radiation in 5568 years. If it contained 80,000 million radioactive carbon atoms today, after 5,568 years, 40,000 million carbon atoms would emerge from it to become atoms of nitrogen. After another 5,568 years have passed, some of these bubbles to become atoms of nitrogen, that is, 20 thousand million atoms of radioactive carbon. and so on ..

We count atoms by the millions, and this is not surprising, then
We learned that one gram of hydrogen, for example, which is the lightest atom, contains about six hundred thousand million million million atoms, and that a gram of carbon, which is an atom 12 times heavier than an atom of hydrogen, contains about fifty thousand million million million atoms.

What is strange about this transformation, from radioactive carbon atoms, to ordinary, non-radioactive nitrogen atoms, is that it is not affected by heat or cold, or a rise or fall in the atmosphere, or an increase or decrease in pressure. It is constant, occurring over the years, and despite the centuries.

- A major advance in the history of things:

Since this research began after World War II, until these present years, this science of dating, using radioactive carbon, has made great progress. His laboratories increased until today there are more than forty. In England, I remember at least three laboratories that do this.

In the beginning, the scientific historian needed a large amount of charcoal to extract from the antiquity of the required age, amounting to a few tens of grams. Today, however, as devices have improved and become more accurate, it is possible to suffice with small amounts of charcoal that may not exceed one-hundredth of a gram.

History began with the discovery of black hard coal from its samples. But most laboratories today extract it from waste in the form of gas, carbon dioxide or other than carbon dioxide, then they purify it in their tubes without it touching the air and then enter it into electronic meters, similar to Geiger counters, to count the pulses in it. A special tool counts these pulses, so the world does not stop there all the time, listening to them or looking at their effects.

These monitoring devices - these meters increased in sensitivity, and they began to sense a much smaller amount of the pulse than they had initially sensed. About 2000 times less. This means that it was able to detect carbon atoms from these wastes, even the oldest ones, whose radiation has weakened greatly over time. Most laboratories today can date to about 35,000 years or 45,000 years ago. But some of them were able to be dated to 70,000 years ago.

After carbon, other atoms date:

The history of the atom does not extend to these thousands of years, to 45,000 or to 70,000. Carbon fails, so atoms of other elements arise in its place, and are dated in a manner similar to his method.

The element potassium, for example, changes over the centuries, and is dated to a million years.

With carbon and potassium, scientists measure the entire period of time that man has lived on this earth.