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Old 01-02-2008, 12:49 PM   #17 (permalink)
John Cooper
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Baron von Lotsov View Post

Incidentally it has nothing to do with what plants do to the C14 other than they simply store it since your link talks about chemical synthesis which is quite distinct from its nuclear counterpart. To create C14 needs high-energy cosmic rays, so nothing changes it in the actual plant itself. You can burn it or freeze it and the half-life remains exact since the nuclear process is on an entirely different energy level.
I was talking about C13 and C12. When you burn something created from plants the ratio would be slightly different depending on the plant.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Baron von Lotsov View Post


So I agree this is odd and other than nuclear decay I can't see how this is claimed so maybe someone should ask him. However I still find it an interesting line to see if isotopes can give us some date information on atmospheric carbon. It's a valid line of enquiry.
Sadly he does not get a link.
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