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The Hindu
The Hindu
Technology
Vasudevan Mukunth

What is radiocarbon dating? | Explained

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From thermodynamics to GPS, from social systems theory to studies of consciousness, time plays an essential role in how we study, interpret, and understand the natural universe and the peoples and technologies that occupy it. Keeping time in particular allows us to understand its passage and the change by which that passage is characterised. The technique called radiocarbon dating brought the first verifiable way to do this to many fields of science, transforming them – and our world – to a significant degree.

What is radiocarbon dating?

‘Dating’ is a method by which the age of an object can be determined. Radiocarbon dating refers to a method that does this using radiocarbon, a name for the isotope carbon-14.

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