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There are few fields of science that carbon-14 has not touched. A radioactive isotope of carbon, it stands out for its unusually long half-life. Best known for its application to estimating the age of artifacts--carbon dating--carbon-14 helped reveal new chronologies of human civilization and geological time. Everything containing carbon, the basis of all life, could be placed in time according to the clock of radioactive decay, with research applications ranging from archeology to oceanography to climatology. In Hot Carbon, John F. Marra tells the untold story of this scientific revolution. He weaves together the workings of the many disciplines that employ carbon-14 with gripping tales of the individuals who pioneered its possibilities. He describes the concrete applications of carbon-14 to the study of all the stuff of life on earth, from climate science's understanding of change over time to his own work on oceanic photosynthesis with microscopic phytoplankton. Marra's engaging narrative encompasses nuclear testing, the peopling of the Americas, elephant poaching, and the flax plants used for the linen in the Shroud of Turin. Combining colorful narrative prose with accessible explanations of fundamental science, Hot Carbon is a thought-provoking exploration of how the power of carbon-14 informs our relationship to the past.
List of contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Prologue: Aboard the Research Vessel Endeavor, South of Iceland, May 1991
1. Discovery
2. Discovery’s Wake
3. The “Invisible Phenomenon”
4. Dating
5. Photosynthesis
6. Calvin’s Cycle
7. Scintillations and Accelerations
8. The Shroud of Turin and Other Relics
9. Ocean Circulation
10. Carbon-14 in the Ocean
11. Ocean Fertility
12. Resolution: Plankton Rate Processes in Oligotrophic Oceans
13. Carbon-14 and Climate
Epilogue
Appendix 1. List of Nobel Prize Winners Mentioned
Appendix 2. The Periodic Table of Elements
Notes
References
Index
About the author
John F. Marra is a Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, and Director of Aquatic Research and Environmental Assessment Center at Brooklyn College. Previously, Marra was a research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, from 1977 to 2007. In 2001, he was appointed Associate Director for the Division of Biology and Paleoenvironement at Lamont. He has published over 140 scholarly articles. This is his first book.
Summary
There are few fields of science that carbon-14 has not touched. In Hot Carbon, John F. Marra tells the untold story of this scientific revolution, weaving together the workings of the many disciplines that employ carbon-14 with gripping tales of the individuals who pioneered its possibilities.
Additional text
Hot Carbon offers a timely perspective on how mind-bogglingly connected our planet is – and how 14 C will continue to be important in helping us to understand what lies ahead.
