Comment on On the seventh day, god created uranium
Allero@lemmy.today 2 months agoSo, living objects can regulate the amount of carbon-14 specifically, not just carbon in general? And then when they die, this regulation stops and it breaks down?
Because otherwise it shouldn’t matter whether they died and carbon-14 broke down for a thousand years or carbon-14 broke down for a thousand years and then the recent creature consumed it.
Here I assume that whatever happens with carbon-14 in fossils also happens with any carbon around us. It’s not that it breaks down in fossils specifically, but not in everything else. So the order shouldn’t matter, unless the ratio is different in a living organism.
Thalfon@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
So, from what I understand, living things maintain (or at least prior to the industrial revolution did maintain) a predictable ratio of C-14 to C-12. I’m not super familiar with the mechanics of this, I imagine it’s a case of the amount of C-14 lost matching the rate it was replaced via respiration.
Once the organism dies, it stops controlling that ratio and we can measure the decay using a sample of the material.
Allero@lemmy.today 2 months ago
I see! If so, that makes sense.
maxwellfire@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I don’t think it’s that the plants are controlling the ratio. I think it’s that more C14 is being made all the time. And it only gets mixed into plants when they are living