Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.

Emissions from Fossil Fuels may Limit Carbon Dating

posted by martyb on Wednesday July 22 2015, @12:07AM   Printer-friendly
from the hard-up-for-a-date? dept.

basstard writes with a report from BBC news:

Growing emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are threatening the effectiveness of radiocarbon dating, according to new research. The dating method has been used for decades to accurately determine the age of a wide range of artefacts. But using fossil fuels pumps a type of carbon into the atmosphere that confuses the dating technique. Scientists say that by 2050, new clothes could have the same radiocarbon date as items 1,000 years old.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Emissions from Fossil Fuels may Limit Carbon Dating | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 20 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2015, @08:29AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2015, @08:29AM (#212237)

    Well, as I see it, the method will deliver two dates, which are generally rather far apart. I'm sure in the majority of cases there will be other ways to decide which of the two dates are correct. There will, however, be a date window where you only can say the date is inside that window. This date window will be very close to now (maybe we are even currently in that date window).