Word: c14
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...Dunes Namibia's dunes vary enormously in shape, color (anything from cream to red) and size; the largest in the country can top 100 meters in height. The most impressive - and tallest - in the coastal belt close to Swakopmund is known as Dune 7, just off the C14 highway, about six kilometers from town. This is the place to sandboard - an activity that can be organized by the Desert Explorers Adventure Center, africa-adventure.org/d/desertex, which also offers quad biking, skydiving and more. All activities are carefully controlled to make sure the impact on the desert is minimal...
Carbon 14 has a half life of 5,700 years, i.e., half its atoms disintegrate in that time, giving off radiation. Living plants absorb C14 from the air, and animals get it from plants. Therefore, newly formed organic matter starts out with a standard amount of carbon 14, but after the plant or animal dies, the C14 in its tissues slowly diminishes. When the amount remaining is measured by means of its radiation, the time that has passed since death can be calculated accurately...
Radioactive carbon is not new; "C-14" has been made in cyclotrons for seven years but in even more minute quantities and at far greater cost. Other elements can also be made radioactive, but C14 is the most useful for cancer research because 1) it remains radioactive for thousands of years, can be recovered and used again, 2) carbon is the key element in all body chemistry. Barnard's researchers will use it as a tracer (it signals its presence by shooting off radiation) to study the metabolism of cancerous cells which must be understood before the disease...
...experiments will be performed on rabbits. Reason: present object of experiments is not to cure but to cause cancer and hundreds of rabbits can share the C14 required to experiment on a single human being...
Craig, E. F., P. S. C14...