Timeline for can radiocarbon dating be used on living things?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 15, 2011 at 6:15 | vote | accept | Vineet Menon | ||
| Oct 14, 2011 at 12:04 | comment | added | AdamRedwine | I think Anna made the appropriate correction. I expect that the shrub to which everyone is refering is the King Clone creosote bush. The Wikipedia article on that organism says that dating was performed by a comparison of ring count with carbon dating from "chunks of wood" from the central rings. Whatever you call it, the fact that the woody plant has been alive for over 1500 years pretty well implies that it will contain some non-living heartwood even if the deposition per year is minute (as it would have to be). | |
| Oct 14, 2011 at 11:21 | comment | added | Vineet Menon | @adamRedwine:What you said is true for a tree with heartwood and sapwood, since its only sapwood which is living. But the vegetation in question is a shrub. It doesn't have those features..Please correct me if I'm wrong. | |
| Oct 14, 2011 at 11:08 | comment | added | anna v | I would add that in the particular shrub which the questioner asks about ,since there is no central core, they must have found in the center of the so called "ring" dead remains, roots most probably, of such age as claimed. | |
| Oct 14, 2011 at 10:05 | history | answered | AdamRedwine | CC BY-SA 3.0 |