![\"arteries\"](\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/5bd61_radioactive-sign.jpg\")
Should we be strapping these to our torsos?<\/p>Should we be strapping these to our torsos?<\/p>
We’re all a little bit radioactive now. Thanks to atom bomb tests in the mid-20th century, it’s possible to use radioactive (but harmless) carbon-14 to date not only bristlecone pines<\/a> and putative Noah’s Arks<\/a> but also, in a recent Karolinska Institutet study<\/a>, Grandma and Grandpa’s artery fat.<\/p> The technique used in this study—radiocarbon dating—is widely employed by archaeologists and geologists to determine when organisms like fossilized trees or plants lived. All organisms absorb carbon-14 along with normal carbon-12 in a ratio that mirrors how much of each type is present in the atmosphere. (Carbon-14 is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere by cosmic rays, and then mixes throughout the atmosphere and into the oceans.) When an organism dies, the carbon-14 starts to decay at a known rate—half the atoms become nitrogen-14 in about 5,700 years—and the amount left in the tissue when it’s dug up can be used to back-calculate its age.<\/p> The above-ground atom bomb tests<\/a> of the Cold War era raised the amount of carbon-14 in the air; after the tests stopped, atmospheric radiocarbon declined at a very precisely recorded rate. Using this information, scientists ...<\/p> Should we be strapping these to our torsos?We’re all a little bit radioactive now. Thanks to atom bomb tests in the mid-20th century, it’s possible to use radioactive (but harmless) carbon-14 to date not only bristlecone pines and putative Noah’s … Continue reading <\/a>
<\/a><\/p>
<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"