• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Replacement Rates for Human Tissue from Atmospheric Radiocarbon
  • Contributor: Libby, W. F.; Berger, Rainer; Mead, J. F.; Alexander, G. V.; Ross, J. F.
  • imprint: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 1964
  • Published in: Science
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1126/science.146.3648.1170
  • ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p>Carbon-14, derived from the testing of thermonuclear weapons in the atmosphere of the Northern Hemisphere during 1961-62, has been found in human tissues including the brain in amounts which reflect the atmospheric concentration of carbon-14 as of several months earlier. In collagen of cartilage, the rate of uptake of carbon-14 is much slower than in other tissues; essentially no radioactive carbon was found in the collagen of 70-year-old adults that had been exposed to the comparatively high concentrations of carbon-14 in the atmosphere during the years 1954 to 1964. Individuals from the Southern Hemisphere show little increase in the carbon-14 content of their tissues at present, and detailed tests with individuals traveling to the Northern Hemisphere from the Southern allow closer scrutiny of the tissue replacement rates.</jats:p>