Word: carbon
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Rawson and Higgins have another reason for wanting to return to Kilauea Iki. In drilling their hole they discovered that nitrogen and carbon dioxide were seeping from it. There is a chance that these gases came from the atmosphere, the ocean or surface rocks, but if they can be proved to have come from the virgin lava itself, they may contribute valuable evidence about the formation of the earth. One theory holds that the earth was formed quickly out of dust particles and that it kept hot enough while growing to drive all gases out of its interior. A rival...
...stood at the head of the opposing forces. In the state capital of Baton Rouge, segregationist Governor Jimmie Davis-a smudged, folk-singing carbon of Arkansas' Orval Faubus-guided his legislature through a stormy special session, signing into law a paroxysm of sweeping resolutions aimed at tearing apart the New Orleans school system and whooping up segregationist emotion. In New Orleans' federal courtroom, U.S. District Court Judge J. (for James) Skelly Wright, who had ordered the school integration, countered every new law with a restraining order. New Orleans-born Judge Wright, in an unprecedented display of judicial power...
After the war, Libby joined the newly formed Institute of Nuclear Studies at the University of Chicago and specialized in peaceful employment of the atom. Investigating the feeble radioactivity of air, he found that a good part of it comes from carbon 14, a radioactive isotope of carbon that is formed when cosmic rays hit nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere. This led to a brilliant idea that has revolutionized a long list of sciences...
Willard Frank Libby, 51, in chemistry. A lanky (6 ft. 2 in., 200 Ibs.), slow-spoken member of the Atomic Energy Commission between 1954 and 1959, Libby is the man who pioneered in carbon 14, by means of which bones, beams and bogs can be dated as far back as 60,000 years ago (TIME cover...
...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...