I want to know how we got onto the subject of legalized drugs. I think I missed something.
If contamination is so easily introduced and so difficult to rule out, why should we accept the certainty with which radiocarbon dates are presented?
After ten half-lives (57,000 years), there will only be about 1/1000 of the original C14 left. The best we can measure in the lab gives us an expected error of about 1/1000 of the C14 that's present in alive or recently dead organisms.
1. Knowledge of the medium it was found in.And how do we rule out the possibility of contamination like the contamination you're proposing for diamonds?
What Barbarian and I were discussing earlier is that diamonds are about 1% nitrogen, so that's a lot of nitrogen atoms that could absorb neutrons.
Of course. Evolution always modifies something already in use.
1. Knowledge of the medium it was found in.
2. Proper procedure.
3. Proper callibration.
A good lab with proper procedures will already be aware of what level of contamination their procedures add to the process. They recalibrate the machines regularly.
We're not talking about procedural contamination.
Of course it does.
Kinda hard to have an initial feature don't you think.
I mean you just said "always modifies" lol. So what mechanism pre-dates evolution... hmmm.
Where did you get this 1% N statistic? Please don't tell me Wikipedia.
Frayed says that contamination is only significant for items that are in fact under 50,000 years old.Steps 1 and 3 specifically address in situ contamination, as well as procedural contamination.
Frayed says that contamination is only significant for items that are in fact under 50,000 years old.
I'm wondering how he knows there was no in situ contamination of the type that he reckons affected the diamonds.
:AMR:That's easy--diamonds that have been affected by ionizing radiation past a certain limit turn green.
:AMR:
Do wood carvings and mummies also turn green?
Wood carvings and mummies affected by radioactivity will have far greater effects than conversion of nitrogen to C14.
Like what? :idunno:
In the first place, they'll be detectably radioactive.
:AMR: Isn't that a prerequisite for radiocarbon dating?