Stone to Silicon

Math & science · 1949

Radiocarbon dating

Libby dates organic remains by the decay of carbon-14.

With a half-life of about 5,730 years, carbon-14 dates material back roughly 50,000 years. It gave archaeology and climate science an absolute clock.

See it in the living treeWikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)